Appalachian State tops Coastal Carolina 70-65, advances

Mar 10, 2020, 01:49 am

BOONE, N.C. -- Isaac Johnson scored a career-high 24 points, Tim Ceaser scored a go-ahead layup with 4:06 to play and sixth-seeded Appalachian State came from behind to beat No. 8 Coastal Carolina 70-65 in thesecond round of the Sun Belt Conference tournament on Monday night.

The Mountaineers (18-14) advance to Wednesday's quarterfinal against No.3-seed Texas State.

Appalachian State trailed 37-22 at halftime, but took a 60-59 lead on Ceaser's layup and led by as many as five until the Chanticleers closed to 66-65 with 17 seconds left after DeVante Jones scored six straight points. O'Showen Williams hit two free throws and, after Coastal's Tyrell Gumbs-Frater missed a 3 with 3 seconds left, Johnson iced it with two from the line.

Johnson had 10 rebounds and made 8 of 10 free throws for Appalachian State, which shot 22 of 38 from the foul line (58%). Williams scored 13 points with six rebounds and six assists and Justin Forrest added 13 points. Hunter Seacat scored 12 points.

Appalachian State totaled 48 second-half points, a season best for the team.

Jones scored 29 points with eight rebounds and five assists for the Chanticleers (16-17). Gumbs-Frater added 12 points and Ceaser had eight points and 11 boards.

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Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights, http://www.automatedinsights.com/ap, using data from STATS LLC, https://www.stats.com