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Appalachian State Basketball Teams Gear Up For 2019 Sun Belt Tournament

By Nathan Ham

The men’s and women’s basketball teams at Appalachian State are hoping to earn a spot in the NCAA Tournament by winning the 2019 Sun Belt Tournament held in New Orleans this week.

In the men’s tournament, App State got the 10th and final seed for the tournament, hoping to be the ultimate Cinderella story by winning the championship. The final spot in the tournament came down to the last week of the regular season. Thanks to App State’s win over Troy and the sixth loss in a row by Little Rock, the Mountaineers, who finished the regular season at 11-20 and 5-13 in the Sun Belt, got the last tournament spot.

The first round of conference tournament action will be two games played at host team sites. #7 Louisiana-Monroe will host #10 Appalachian state on Tuesday at 8 p.m. The game will be on ESPN+ for those that would like to watch and the radio broadcast will be available on each affiliate of the Appalachian Sports Network. The other first round game is #9 Arkansas State at #8 South Alabama.

The winner of the App State-ULM game will then travel to New Orleans to face #6 Coastal Carolina at 8:30 p.m. on Thursday. App State and ULM split their regular season meetings with the Mountaineers winning in Boone on February 2 by an 85-84 score and ULM defended its home court with an 81-75 win over Appalachian on February 28.

For the Lady Mountaineers, they were safely in the tournament coming into the final week of the regular season. Appalachian earned the #5 seed and will face the winner of #9 Arkansas State at #8 Coastal Carolina on Wednesday at 12:30 p.m. App State finished the regular season with a 16-13 overall record and a 10-8 mark in the Sun Belt Conference. The women’s game will also be on ESPN+.

2019 Sun Belt Conference Men’s Basketball Championship Bracket

Game 1: #9 Arkansas State at #8 South Alabama (Tuesday, 8 p.m.)

Game 2: #10 Appalachian State at #7 UL-Monroe (Tuesday, 8 p.m.)

Game 3: #5 Louisiana vs. Winner of Game 1 (Thursday, 6 p.m.)

Game 4: #6 Coastal Carolina vs. Winner of Game 2 (Thursday, 8:30 p.m.)

Game 5: #4 Texas State vs. Winner of Game 3 (Friday, 6 p.m.)

Game 6: #3 Georgia Southern vs. Winner of Game 4 (Friday, 8:30 p.m.)

Game 7: #1 Georgia State vs. Winner of Game 5 (Saturday, 4 p.m.)

Game 8: #2 UT-Arlington vs. Winner of Game 6 (Saturday, 6:30 p.m.

Championship: Winner of Game 7 vs. Winner of Game 8 (Sunday, 2 p.m.)

2019 Sun Belt Conference Women’s Basketball Championship Bracket

Game 1: #9 Arkansas State at #8 Coastal Carolina (Monday, 7 p.m.)

Game 2: #10 Louisiana at #7 South Alabama (Monday, 8 p.m.)

Game 3: #5 Appalachian State vs. Winner of Game 1 (Wednesday, 12:30 p.m.)

Game 4: #6 Texas State vs. Winner of Game 2 (Wednesday, 3 p.m.)

Game 5: #4 Georgia State vs. Winner of Game 3 (Thursday, 12:30 p.m.)

Game 6: #3 Troy vs. Winner of Game 4 (Thursday, 3 p.m.)

Game 7: #1 Little Rock vs. Winner of Game 5 (Friday, 12:30 p.m.)

Game 8: #2 UT-Arlington vs. Winner of Game 6 (Friday, 3 p.m.)

Championship: Winner of Game 7 vs. Winner of Game 8 (Saturday, 12 p.m.)