By David Rogers. February 20, 2012. BOONE -- Boone Police may not have an all-points bulletin out on the whereabouts of the Appalachian State women's basketball starters, but Maryah Sydnor, Anna Freeman, T.C. Weldon and Raven Gary stole their way into the hearts of the 482 basketball fans on hand at the Holmes Center Monday night, to watch the Mountaineers run around Furman, 85-70, on Senior Night. Pictures by Meghan Gay

AppState had 20 team steals on the evening, led by A. Freeman (5), Sydnor (4), Weldon (4) and Gary (4), as the Mountaineers' pesky hands seemed to disrupt nearly every Furman possession.

If Saturday's upset loss to Davidson was supposed to dampen the Mountaineers' spirits and crush their aspirations to win either the Southern Conference regular season title or the March 2-5 SoCon Tournament Championship (and an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament), Monday night's performance was a smashing refutation of that thesis.

The visiting Paladins simply could not handle the head coach Darcie Vincent-led team's up-tempo offense, and were frequently confused by the sometimes frenzied full-court pressure. ASU was in command from start to finish, leading almost every statistical category.  With among their strongest inside performances of the season, the Mountaineers dominated Furman in the paint, with  a 56-28 advantage. Pounding the offensive boards with 21 rebounds, Appalachian garnered 16 second chance points, compared to just nine for Furman.  The disruptive defense that produced the 20 steals generated 34 points from turnovers, more than double Furman's 15.  And the run-run-run inspired offense contributed to 28 fast break points, vs. just 16 for the Paladins. 

Furman drew first blood, leading 3-0 to open the game on a three-pointer by junior forward Teshia Griswold, who registered a team-high 17 points on the night.  But that would be one of the Paladins' few moments of glory, as the Lady Mountaineers had a commanding 16-5 lead by 14:08 remaining in the first half, expanded it to 23 with 6:03 left, then quickly quelched a Paladin rally attempt to take a 16-point lead into intermission.

Perhaps it was an overconfident Mountaineer team that returned to the court for second half play, because Furman came out of the break firing on all cylinders, reducing the ASU advantage to just eight points with only three minutes gone in the second half.  They were sparked by energetic, in-your-face play from  junior guard Kaitlin Murphy and her sophomore replacement Brigid Morrissey, trying to turn the tables on Appalachian with the Paladins' own brand of pressing defense.  The pressure was successful in disorienting the ASU players until a key timeout called by the Mountaineers.

"Our coaching staff does not entirely agree on the best way to break a press," head coach Vincent told Blowing Rock News later. "But as a point guard, I believe in a good ball-handling player first breaking the press and then looking to pass, rather than to beat the press by passing over or through someone.  That's what I told them, and it worked. In fact, it led to several mismatches in our favor and we got layups."

Using Vincent's press-busting strategy, within a couple of minutes AppState had jumped back to a 16 point lead,  then 24 points with 8:28 remaining in the game. Sporting a 20-point lead with four minutes remaining, Vincent started making Senior Night special for the four seniors being honored -- with all of them on the court at the same time for the first time this season.

For senior Weldon, Monday's action was close to a career night for the Atlanta native.  In addition to her game-high 20 points, she pulled down five rebounds, recorded six assists, had one block, and slipped in four steals.  Fellow senior Canesha Edwards saw only 17 minutes of action, but made the most of it with six points, three rebounds, one assist and two steals.

ASU had one frightening moment when junior guard Courtney Freeman fell hard to the floor, striking her head. Vincent told reporters later, "She is being evaluated for a possible concussion, but she looks to be OK."

In her post-game press conference, Vincent was excited about the SoCon regular season championship race, which the Mountaineers finish on the road vs. Samford (Feb. 25) and Chattanooga (Feb. 27).  "How perfect can it be that the top four teams in the league are all playing each other over these last four games?"

To close out league play, in addition to the ASU games, Samford hosts Chattanooga on Wednesday, and Chattanooga hosts Davidson on Saturday After Monday night's games, Appalachian and Davidson are tied atop the SoCon standings with identical 15-2 records (ASU's only two losses were to Davidson), while Chattanooga is 3rd at 14-3, and Samford a close 4th at 11-5.  At stake for all of the teams are the seedings and first round byes for the SoCon tournament in Asheville, March 2-5.

Furman 70

Appalachian State 85

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