With the win, the Mountaineers will face the Mean Green of North Texas at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday for the championship in the Holmes Center. Tickets are on sale and can be purchased by clicking HERE.
App State attacked the paint scoring 44 of its 70 points inside while shooting 52.9 percent from inside the arc. The defense forced Campbell into 33.8 percent shooting from the floor and 3-for-14 from outside the arc against the Big South’s leading 3-point shooting team. App State is 19-0 when allowing under 70 points this season.
Four players scored in double figures with Madi Story (Maiden, N.C./Bandys) netting a game-high 19 points (13 in the second half) on 7-of-12 shooting from the field. Story added six boards and two assists. Pre Stanley (Rockledge, Fla./Rockledge) was efficient once again with 15 points on 6-for-9 shooting and grabbed six boards.
Bayley Plummer (Thomasville, N.C./East Davidson) showcased a dominant performance in the paint, nabbing her ninth double-double of the season with 14 points and a game-high 20 rebounds. Plummer is now the record holder for the most rebounds in a single season with 441, surpassing Valorie Whiteside’s mark of 435 in the 1984-85 season. Ashley Polacek (Ottawa, Canada/UCF) rounded out the leading scorers with 10 points on top of four assists. She also added four rebounds.
Leading in the fourth quarter, 52-49, Story and Plummer took over on offense as they hit the Apps’ first seven field goals of the frame and scored 16 of the 18 fourth-quarter points. The duo helped App grow the lead to 11, 66-55. Then, back-to-back field goals by Stanley and Plummer extended the cushion to 70-55 with under a minute left in the game.
Appalachian got off to a quick start with a 15-6 opening in the first 6:08 of the game after Lainey Gosnell’s (Demorest, Ga./Habersham Central) layup. The Mountaineers held the Camels to 3-of-12 from the floor during the stretch. After taking an 18-9 lead, the Camels climbed back by going on a 6-1 run to slice the deficit to just four, 19-15.
App State held a 24-19 lead with 7:58 in the half when Campbell put together a 12-5 run to take a 31-29 advantage with 2:52 left. Appalachian responded by tallying nine of the next 11 points with four different Mountaineers scoring to go into halftime up 38-33.
Campbell closed the gap to 40-39 before the Mountaineers engineered a 7-0 run with five of the points coming from Polacek. Appalachian stayed in front the rest of the quarter en route to taking a 52-47 going into the final quarter.
Appalachian has won nine of its last 11 games and improves to 13-3 in the Holmes Center this season. The 21 victories are the most since the 2011-12 campaign, while the 13-win turnaround is the second-best win improvement in school history.
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