9:05 PM -- ASU defeats Milligan 91-71. Booth finishes with 25 points, with 20 from Williamson, with Donald Sims breaking the ASU men's all-time leading scoring record. ASU will next play at Davidson on January 5th. Thanks for reading.
8:55 PM -- Final media timeout with 3:58 left in the contest, and ASU leads 84-59. Three Buffaloes, Sylvester, Seymour and Fricke each are in double-figures for the night. With the win tonight, the Mountaineers will improve to 5-7 for the season, while the Buffaloes fall to 3-9 overall.
8:51 PM -- Appalachian has opened its lead up to 30 points at 84-54 as the Buffaloes appear to be running a little low on steam playing its second game in as many nights.
8:43 PM -- 7:25 to play in the ballgame and ASU holds a 73-54 lead. Booth leads all scorers with unofficially 26 points. Sims has 20 points as the veteran tandem has proven to be enough to keep the Buffaloes at bay thus far.
8:35 PM -- 11:50 left in the game and the Mountaineers lead by 19 at 65-46. 8:30 PM -- Mountaineers beginning to pull away as a Donald Sims three-pointer sets the all-time ASU scoring record. His 18 points in the game ranks him first all-time for the ASU scoring charts. 13:30 remains in the game and the Apps hold a 63-46 lead.
8:20 PM -- Jeremy Booth hits his fifth and sixth 3-point basket of the game as the Mountaineers have opened up one of its biggest leads of the game at 55-41 with 15:10 to play in the game. Booth has 20 points for the Mountaineers, with 15 points from Donald Sims and nine from Andre Williamson thus far. Justin Sylvester has 15 points for Milligan, with 11 from Cordero Seymour.
8:00 PM -- An Andre Williamson technical foul for hanging on the rim allows the Buffaloes to hit a pair of free throws in the final second, cutting the ASU lead to 43-36 at halftime. We'll have some stats and more momentarily.
7:50 PM -- 2:57 remains before halftime and the Mountaineers, who once led by only five, now lead 40-29.
7:40 PM -- ASU hasn't been able to shake Milligan as the Mountaineers lead only by a 29-25 score at the under 8 minute time out.
7:25 PM -- two quick baskets from the Buffaloes forces ASU head coach Jason Capel to take a timeout.. The Mountaineers lead it 21-13 with 13:20 left in the first half.
On a side note, Matt Laws is at tonight's Music City Bowl in Nashville as the UNC Tar Heels play the Tennessee Volunteers. Coverage of the bowl game, as well as tonight's ASU basketball will be found in next week's edition of The Avery Journal-Times!
Second media timeout at 11:32 in the first half. Milligan continues to play tough, cutting the ASU lead to 21-16.
7:20 PM -- A quick steal and basket puts the Apps up 21-8, forcing another Milligan timeout.
7:15 PM -- Nathan Healy scores on an offensive rebound and basket, as the Mountaineers have opened up a 19-5 margin. 15:21 to play in the first half and the Mountaineers hold a 19-8 lead. Appalachian has taken 13 shots through the first four minutes, to just three for the Buffaloes.
7:10 PM -- ASU jumps out to an 11-5 lead. Jeremi Booth drains a pair of three-pointers in the early going as the Mountaineers race out in front. Milligan takes a 30 second timeout.
7:00 PM -- We're ready for Tipoff from the Holmes Center. Was just handed a statement that players Anthony Breeze and Anthony Thomas have been suspended indefinitely and won't be available for tonight's game. We'll see how a depleted bench affects the Apps, if at all tonight.
We're LIVE at Holmes Convocation Center on the campus of Appalachian State University in Boone for a Thursday night tussle between the Appalachian State Mountaineers and the Milligan Buffaloes. ASU is coming off three defeats in the Cancun Governor's Cup just before the Christmas holiday, and look to get back on track against the NAIA Milligan College club.
We'll be providing score and stat updates from courtside here in Boone as the Mountaineers look to end 2010 with needed momentum and a victory. Tip-off is slated for 7:00 p.m., so we'll be back live at that time to begin our coverage in earnest. Thanks for reading!
