Game Notes: Mountaineers, Montana

Courtesy of Appalachian Sports Information

The decade’s winningest NCAA Division I FCS programs meet on the subdivision’s second-biggest stage on Saturday when No. 5 Appalachian State University travels to top-seeded Montana for an NCAA Division I Football Championship semifinal. Kickoff is set for 4 p.m. ET at Washington-Grizzly Stadium in Missoula, Mont.

The game will be televised nationally on ESPN, ESPN HD and ESPN360.com (Todd Harris — play-by-play; Charles Arbuckle — analyst).

NOTING SATURDAY'S MATCHUP
• Appalachian (11-2) advanced to its fourth national semifinal in five years with a heart-stopping 35-31 victory at fourth-seeded Richmond last Saturday.

• Montana (13-0) is in the semifinals for the third time in five years thanks to a 51-0 shutout win over Stephen F. Austin in last Saturday’s quarterfinals.

• ASU has won 11-consecutive games since opening the season with back-to-back five-point losses to Conference USA champion East Carolina and Southland Conference co-champion McNeese State.

• Despite posting its second undefeated regular season in three years, Montana’s campaign was on the brink when it trailed South Dakota State, 48-21, with just over five minutes to go in the third quarter of a first-round playoff matchup on Nov. 28. However, the Grizzlies roared back to score 40 unanswered points in the final 20:25 of the ballgame and claim an improbable 61-48 win.

• All told, UM has scored 91 unanswered points over its last 80:25 of game play.

• With this year’s semifinal berths, ASU and Montana have combined to make 11 semifinal appearances since 2000. The schools’ first final-four appearances of the decade came against each other in 2000, when the Griz edged the Mountaineers, 19-16, in overtime at Washington-Grizzly Stadium.

• The programs are the only two in Division I FCS with 100 victories this decade. Montana is 118-22 since the beginning of the 2000 season while Appalachian is 101-32. Since the beginning of the 2005 season, ASU leads all Division I programs (FCS or FBS) with 61 wins. Montana is second with 58.

• Appalachian is 3-2 all-time in the national semifinal round. It lost in its first two semifinal appearances (1987 and 2000) but won its last three (2005, 2006 and 2007). ASU’s only semifinal road game was its 19-16 overtime loss at Montana in 2000.

• ASU is 4-7 all-time in NCAA Division I FCS/I-AA playoff road games. Last week’s triumph at Richmond marked the Mountaineers first playoff road game since 2001 (quarterfinals at Georgia Southern) and first playoff road win since 2000 (quarterfinals at Western Kentucky).

• A win would be the 12th that Mountaineer quarterback Armanti Edwards has engineered in the NCAA Division I Football Championship, which would move him into a tie with Georgia Southern's Raymond Gross winningest signal-callers in FCS postseason history.

For more on Saturday's matchup, including links to live audio and stats, both teams' stats, rosters, depth charts, game notes and much more, click HERE to visit GoASU.com's official Gameday Central page.

Johnson Among Finalists for Eddie Robinson Award

DALLAS (FWAA) – The Football Writers Association of America has announced seven finalists for the 2009 Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award to be voted upon by the entire membership. The list features coaches from five undefeated teams as well as last season's recipient.

With the 2009 regular season completed, the FWAA, in conjunction with the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, has tabbed the following coaches as finalists: Texas' Mack Brown, Georgia Tech's Paul Johnson, Cincinnati's Brian Kelly, Oregon's Chip Kelly, TCU's Gary Patterson, Boise State's Chris Petersen and Alabama's Nick Saban.

The finalists will be placed on a ballot which will be distributed electronically to the entire FWAA membership.

The FWAA coaching award is named after the late Robinson, a coaching legend at Grambling State University for 55 years. He has more Division I victories (408) than any other coach in the history of college football.

The winner of the FWAA/Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award will be announced and honored at a reception on Jan. 5 in Newport Beach, Calif., in conjunction with the Citi BCS National Championship Game.

Texas' Brown has the Longhorns in a national title game for the second time in five seasons. Texas defeated Nebraska, 13-12, in the Big 12 title game in Dallas to extend its record to 13-0. Only Alabama on Jan. 7 stands between Texas and a fourth national championship.

Georgia Tech's Johnson took the Yellow Jackets to the ACC title with a victory over Clemson in the conference title game. At 11-2, Georgia Tech will meet Iowa in the Orange Bowl and seek to dominate with its grinding spread option offense.

Brian Kelly's Cincinnati Bearcats claimed the Big East Conference title with a 12-0 record. They defeated Pittsburgh by a point in dramatic fashion in the regular-season finale to wrap up the title and gain a berth in the Sugar Bowl opposite Florida.

Oregon's first-year head coach Chip Kelly has the Ducks (10-2) in the Rose Bowl for the first time since 1995. From an season-opening loss to Boise State - after which he had to suspend one of his star players for throwing a punch - Kelly has done a masterful job of holding the season together and winning the Pac-10 title.

Patterson led TCU to its first unbeaten regular season (12-0) since the 1938 Horned Frogs won the national championship. TCU, the Mountain West Conference champion, will be going to a BCS bowl for the first time this season and is currently riding a 14-game winning streak.

Petersen keeps doing it at Boise State with another WAC title. This season the Broncos are 13-0 and headed to another BCS game, the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl against TCU. The Broncos will be seeking another victory in the BCS after a memorable win over Oklahoma in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl.

Saban has directed the top-ranked Crimson Tide to the Citi BCS National Championship Game with a perfect 13-0 record. Alabama defeated Florida in the SEC title game in Atlanta to cap its perfect regular season.

Of the finalists, only Saban has previously won the Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award. He won last season as the Alabama head coach and also in 2003 when he was the head coach at LSU.

The Football Writers Association of America, a non-profit organization founded in 1941, consists of more than 1,100 men and women across North America who cover college football for a living. The membership includes journalists, broadcasters and publicists, as well as key executives in all the areas that involve the game. The FWAA works to govern areas that include gameday operations, major awards, a national poll and its annual All-America team.

The Eddie Robinson Award is a member of the National College Football Awards Association (NCFAA). The NCFAA was founded in 1997 as a coalition of the major collegiate football awards to protect, preserve and enhance the integrity, influence and prestige of the game's predominant awards. The NCFAA encourages professionalism and the highest standards for the administration of its member awards and the selection of their candidates and recipients. For more information, visit the association's official Web site, ncfaa.org.

Cranberry Teams Fall in Opening Round of TRC Tournament; Avery Plays in Semis Today

Cranberry Middle School's boys and girls basketball teams were defeated in Wednesday's opening round of the Toe River Conference Basketball Tournaments.

In boys action, the Wildcats hung tough with tournament host East Yancey, trailing by only two points at halftime. East turned on the pressure to start the second half, sparking a huge scoring run to put the Wildcats down by as many as 23 as the Panthers went on to a 49-27 victory.

In the girls' contest earlier in the evening, the Lady Wildcats and Cane River squared off. Neither team was able to generate much offense, as Cane River led after two quarters by a 13-7 score. Cranberry was only able to muster a Katie Rigdon three-pointer in the second half, as Cane River went on to pull off the upset by the final score of 19-10.

The top-seeded Avery Middle School Lady Panthers begins tournament play this afternoon with a girls semifinal against Cane River at 4 p.m. The Avery boys team will be in action in the evening's final semifinal, taking on the Harris Blue Devils at 7:45 pm.

Updated Toe River Conference Brackets

Middle School Hoops Wrap Regular Season Play

In the final week of the regular season, the basketball teams of both Cranberry Middle and Avery Middle Schools were looking for wins to build positive momentum heading into this week’s Toe River Conference Basketball Tournaments.

Last Tuesday, December 1^st Avery Middle School swept the girls/boys doubleheader over Hunter (TN) Middle School. Avery’s girls took a decisive 36-22 win, using a 15-0 run in the third quarter to open up a game which was tied at halftime. Lauren Burleson led Avery with 12 points, with eight from Breanna Heaton and seven from Haley Woody.

In boys action, the Avery Middle School Panthers were dominant against an overmatched Hunter squad, winning by a final score of 52-13. Hunter brought only seventh graders to the contest, and the Panthers capitalized with its experience and depth. The Panthers outscored Hunter 18-2 to open the game. Eleven different players scored for Avery, led by eight points from Ty Polsgrove and six points from four separate Panthers.

Cranberry and Avery played its final contest of the regular season last Thursday night against one another in an exciting pair of competitive contests.

The Lady Wildcats played inspired basketball, using changes on defense and offense from the teams’ first meeting to take a 29-19 victory.

“For the previous two days we changed up our defense from a 2-1-2 to a 1-2-2 and we moved well in it,” Cranberry head coach Amber Young said after the game. “We were concerned about Avery getting the ball inside on us, but we collapsed well inside and played awesome.”

Cranberry led 9-4 after one period and took a 16-6 lead into halftime. Avery shot only 2 for 20 from the field in the first half and ended the game making only 15 percent of its shots (6 of 40 FG).

“We had open looks and weren’t taking that many bad shots. Our offense wasn’t moving and we didn’t move the ball around. I thought our defense kept us in the game allowing only 29 points,” Avery head coach Donnie Johnson said after the game.

The Lady Panthers scratched back into the game with its defense, drawing to within 19-17 late in the third quarter. Avery missed a layup in the quarter’s waning seconds, while Cranberry scored just prior to the end of the period to build a 22-17 lead after three periods.

“I thought that was a key moment when we didn’t score on the layup,” Coach Johnson added. “We have no excuses. We had our chances, but just didn’t take advantage of them.”

The Lady Wildcats outscored Avery 7-2 to close the contest and earn the victory before a vociferous and supportive home crowd. “We switched our positions some during practice and that helped us get multiple players scoring,” Coach Young stated. “We worked hard on blocking out the past couple of days, as every team that has beaten us has gotten multiple shots. We did a good job of giving them only one chance to score and blocking out.”

Bethany Burleson led Cranberry with 10 points, with seven from Katie Rigdon and six from Karmen Gragg. Avery was paced by 11 points from Breanna Heaton and six from Lauren Burleson.

Avery finishes with an 8-2 conference mark, while the Lady Wildcats complete the regular season at 6-4. Cranberry is a #4 seed and will take on #5 Cane River in a first round conference tournament contest on Wednesday evening at 6:30 at East Yancey Middle School, while Avery as the top seed will take on the Cane River/Cranberry winner in a Thursday semifinal contest at 4 p.m.

In the second half of the evening’s doubleheader, the Avery boys earned a split for the night when they defeated Cranberry 50-41. The Panthers led 12-6 after one quarter and carried a 27-17 lead into the locker room at halftime. Chance Watson scored all 12 of his points during the first half, while Cranberry countered with ten points by Chandler Austin.

Cranberry put together a quick scoring run in the opening minutes of the third quarter to cut the Panther lead to only a pair, but five straight points from Avery’s Chase Buchanan scored five consecutive points to rebuild the lead for good. Avery led 38-29 after the third stanza before capturing the nine-point win.

“We can play with any team in the conference, and I believe any of the top four teams can win the conference tournament,” Avery head coach Gordon Polsgrove said after the win. “Having three starters back from last year has been important. Chase, Ty, and Chance have led the team this season, and we have enjoyed a lot of depth with James and Dalton starting, along with players like Peyton and Kobe off the bench.”

Despite the loss, Cranberry continues to take positives from the contest going into the postseason.

“We had a great effort for the most part, much better than we have seen the previous few games. Our kids starting believing in themselves tonight and it showed,” Cranberry associate coach Kenny Gouge said after the game. “We made a good run in the third quarter, but they made a couple of key baskets which helped them pull away.”

Avery’s Chase Buchanan led all scorers with 14 points, with 12 from Watson and eight from Polsgrove. Cranberry was paced by Austin’s ten, along with nine points from Zach Guy and eight from Tyler Pittman.

Cranberry is a #5 seed in the conference tournament and will play #4 seed East Yancey on the Panthers’ home floor Wednesday at 7:45 p.m. Avery enters the tournament as the #2 seed and will play the winner of #3 Harris and #6 Bowman on Thursday at 7:45 p.m. Championship games will take place on Saturday at 6 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. at East Yancey.

Lady Vikings Snap Losing Streak in Win over Watauga

Through one quarter of Friday night’s varsity girls game, the winless Lady Pioneers held a one-point edge over the Avery Lady Vikings. The Big Red seized control of the game midway through the second quarter, as four players reached double figures in a 61-53 Avery win.

Watauga took a surprising 14-13 lead after one quarter with the help of a pair of three-pointers from Shelby Gilliam. Avery shot only 3 of 17 from the field in the first quarter, but was dominant throughout the night from inside the paint. Sara Wiseman scored five of her 13 points in the first quarter and pulled down eight rebounds overall in the contest.

Avery took the lead for good in the second period with a 12-3 scoring run, as Mercedes Bentley hit a pair of three-pointers off the bench and the Vikings shot 7 of 13 from the field. Katelynn Eudy and Elyse Perry each added a pair of baskets in the quarter to stake Avery to a 32-24 halftime advantage.

“We knew they had big post players, but I felt like my big girls were able to outplay them. We owned the boards in the first half. We out-hustled them, Sara played great and Eudy went in and played well,” Lady Vikings head coach Missy Lyons said. “We might have over-passed the ball some, but we still distributed the ball well. I was pleased with how unselfish the team was and impressed with how they just want to go out there and win ballgames.”

As the third quarter began, the Lady Vikings used three baskets from Lauren Avery to race out to a double-figure advantage. A 14-2 run to open the half extended the Viking bulge to 20 points at 46-26. The Pioneers responded with its own 14-2 run by quarter’s end. Christina Rees tallied 10 of her team-high 18 points in the stanza to bring the Avery lead to within eight at 48-40 through three periods.

The Vikings maintained its lead to pick up the victory as Perry was 5 of 6 from the free throw line in the quarter. As a team, the Lady Vikings were 17 of 31 from the charity stripe, while Watauga was only 3 of 12 from the free throw line.

Avery shot 43 percent from the field in the game, while holding the Lady Pioneers to 36 percent shooting.

The Lady Vikings (4-1) had four players score in double figures led by Sara Wiseman's 13 points and eight rebounds. Elyse Perry also scored 13 points with five assists, three steals, and three rebounds. Lauren Avery scored 12 points with seven rebounds and five assists, while Katelynn Eudy had a double-double with ten points, 13 rebounds, three steals, and two assists. Bentley and Hayley Pyatte added six points apiece in the win.

Avery’s triumph snapped a four-game losing skid to the Lady Pioneers.

“It felt great to get the win. The girls have worked hard and they’re always competitive with Watauga. We’ve let the last few slip through our fingers, and it was good for us to pick up this win,” Coach Lyons added.

Avery and Watauga will meet in a rematch this Friday night at Watauga High School.

App-Montana Gametime Set for Saturday

Courtesy of Appalachian Sports Information

INDIANAPOLIS — Next weekend’s NCAA Division I Football Championship semifinal between No. 5 Appalachian State University and top-seeded Montana has been set for Saturday, Dec. 12, at 4 p.m. ET, the NCAA announced on Sunday. The game will be played at Washington-Grizzly Stadium in Missoula, Mont. and televised nationally on ESPN.

Appalachian (11-2) and Montana (13-0) are meeting for the second time ever. Their previous matchup also came in the national semifinals, with Montana eeking out a 19-16 overtime victory in Missoula on Dec. 9, 2000. ASU and UM are the winningest NCAA Division I FCS programs of the decade, with the Grizzlies sporting a 118-22 record and the Mountaineers coming in at 101-32 since the beginning of the 2000 season. The Apps are making their fourth semifinal appearance in five years while the Griz are in the final four for the third time in five seasons.

ASU is 15-0 all-time when playing on ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU, including a 2-0 mark on the Worldwide Leader of Sports’ flagship network.

***TICKET UPDATE*** (Sunday, 4:45 p.m.)
Mountaineer fans can purchase tickets from Appalachian's allotment beginning on Monday at 9 a.m. Tickets cost $29 apiece and can be purchased by phone at (828) 262-2079 or in person at the ASU athletics ticket office, located in the Holmes Center. ASU-UM tickets will be on sale between 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Wednesday and 9 a.m.-noon on Thursday.