Appalachian State 78, Mocs 68

This is so frustrating. But the Mocs were playing on their second straight night still recovering from the flu bug against a good team on the road. And they lost their two road games to the two other best teams in the North by a combined total of eleven points in two nights.

So do we blame them for these losses? Or do we praise them for not getting obliterated in either game?

I don't know yet. That's the problem. This was a critical weekend, and the Mocs needed desperately to come up with a win. That was what made this flu so devastating. It just couldn't have come at a worse time for the Mocs.

Western is 6-2 in North Division play, while the Mocs are 7-2. So a tie could still go either way between those two. Appalachian State is 6-3 in North Division play. If the Mocs beat Samford or if Appalachian State loses on Thursday to Western Carolina, the Mocs will have the tiebreaker against the Mountaineers. Either one of those events would also clinch a first round bye for the Mocs.

Omar Wattad and Keegan Bell combined to shoot 5 of 18 tonight, including 2 of 13 from three point range. It was obvious that the team was tired in the second half. They had been outrebounding the Mountaineers up until the last ten minutes. They wound up getting outrebounded 32-30. DeAntre Jefferson scored 11 points and ten rebounds, a very nice double-double. Ricky Taylor scored 21 while Chris Early had 12.

The Mocs were up one at the half, and lead with about 12 minutes to play in the second half. But then a 14-0 run by Appy left the Mocs in a hole they could not climb out of. Omar Carter and Donald Sims combined to scored 41 points.

The Mocs do not play another conference game until Monday, February 21. That's nine days from now. They play Georgia Tech in-between. The Mocs now need to beat Wofford and Furman, and go on the road to beat Samford just to win the division.

How will the Mocs attack the Georgia Tech game given everything that happened this weekend? Unknown.

This game- the Mocs were slower to the loose balls in the second half and it cost them. It probably was at least partially sickness related. That's the hope.

GO MOCS!