Appalachian State head coach Dustin Kerns sat down for his postgame press conference at the Pensacola Bay Center and reached for a Dasani bottle after being asked to make an opening statement.
“Well,” Kerns said, exasperated. “I need a little something stronger than a water.”
The No. 4 East Division seed Mountaineers claimed an overtime upset of No. 1 West Division seed Texas State on Saturday in the second round of the Sun Belt tournament, 76-73. But the reigning conference regular season champions went down throwing every haymaker it had before getting knocked out of the bracket.
“We always stand on, no matter what, we never panic. And that's what we did,” Bobcats senior guard Shelby Adams said. “We seen that we was down eight. We just took it and were just going to go out and just play our hardest, like we always do. And that helped us come back.”
Neither team got off to a strong start offensively, combining to shoot 20-57 from the field in the first half. Texas State (18-7, 12-3 Sun Belt) still held a 26-20 lead heading into halftime and extended it to 11 in the first three minutes of the second half.
The team couldn’t shake App State (15-11, 7-8), though. The Mountaineers came within one point of tying the game by the 9:47 mark and a barrage of 3-pointers helped them take a 49-48 edge with 6:01 on the clock.
The underdogs pushed the lead to 61-53 with 32 seconds remaining. At the time, the maroon and gold had shot just 3-10 from outside. Junior guard Caleb Asberry had just five points on 2-11 shooting.
“The plan is always for Caleb to shoot a shot that we believe he's capable of making, playing within the offense,” Bobcats interim head coach Terrence Johnson said. “I think at that point of time, you want your best shooters to shoot it. If the plan isn't for him, (junior guard) Mason (Harrell) or (senior forward) Isiah (Small), then we're planning to fail.”
Harrell flung a high pass to Asberry on the right wing on the next possession. Asberry’s defender leaped to his right, hoping to catch an interception if Asberry couldn't corral the ball. But Asberry did and canned the open 3-pointer.
Texas State immediately fouled and the Mountaineers went 1-2 at the free throw line. On the next trip down, the Bobcats swung the ball to Small on the left wing, who knocked down a contested triple to trim the deficit to 62-59. The team fouled again and App State made both free throws to go back up by five with 11 seconds left.
The maroon and gold inbounded the ball to Asberry, who took three dribbles to get up the court and pull up deep from the left wing. The ball fell in again and Texas State called its last timeout down 64-62 with 6.1 seconds remaining.
The team was forced to foul again, but caught a break when Mountaineers senior guard Justin Forrest went just 1-2 at the stripe. Asberry collected the miss, took five dribbles down the sideline and pulled up deep from the right wing just before the buzzer sounded.
The ball ripped through the net, tying the game at 65-65 and sending it into overtime.
End of regulation: @smdrsports #TXST 65#AppSt 65#TXSTAfterDark tally:
— Drew King (@drewking0222) March 7, 2021
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“It was for sure up and down,” Adams said. “But a lot of timesm I preach to my teammates and to everybody that we just gotta stay level-headed. You know, even if they go and make a run, we still gotta keep our heads up and keep chopping wood. And that's what our whole season has been based upon.”
The Bobcats won the tip-off in overtime and Asberry drilled a stepback trey from the top of the key on the first possession. But Texas State got outscored 11-5 the rest of the way. Asberry had one more chance to tie it up with three seconds left, but missed on his final 3-point attempt, giving App State the 76-73 win.
“I think that we came out and did some things early on in the overtime segment that helped us,” Johnson said. “And then we kind of lost focus throughout it and missed on some little things that cost us.”
Asberry posted a double-double on the night with 17 points and 10 rebounds. Harrell led the team with 20 points, followed by Asberry’s 17, Small with 15 and junior forward Nighael Ceaser with 10.
In any other year, the Bobcats would already have its ticket punched to the National Invitation Tournament (NIT), automatically qualifying as regular season champions. But due to COVID-19 restrictions, the NIT downsized its field of teams from 32 to 16, all of which will be at-large bids.
If Texas State doesn’t receive an invitation to the NIT, it likely won’t have anywhere else to go -- the CollegeInsider.com Tournament was canceled last month due to the ongoing pandemic, meaning the maroon and gold may have played its last game of the season.
The Bobcats have four seniors on the roster in Adams, guard Marlin Davis, forward Quentin Scott and Small. But all four have the opportunity to return, as the NCAA froze eligibility this year due to COVID-19. Small has already told Johnson he intends to return.
Johnson, meanwhile, will wait to find out if the school takes off the “interim” portion of his title. Kerns used the end of his presser to call on Texas State to make the move.
“I don't know what we're waiting on,” Kerns said. “Give him the job. He won the league in his first year, he did a terrific job. I think he's a wonderful person, I've got great respect. I watched a lot of their games, he should be the head coach there and it'll be very disappointing if he's not. But remove the interim tag. Give him a five-year deal. Let's go, let's do the right thing.”
