Kellen Brand tallied a career-high 37 points and added seven rebounds to lead Appalachian State to a 77-54 men's basketball victory over College of Charleston in the Southern Conference Tournament semifinals at Time Warner Cable Arena Sunday night.
The Mountaineers advance to Monday's 9 p.m. championship game, where they will face Wofford in Time Warner Cable Arena. The game will be televised live on ESPN2, and the winner will secure the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Brand was 14-of-19 from the field, hit 5-of-6 from long distance and his point total was the most for a Mountaineer in SoCon Tournament play in school history. Josh Hunter posted 12 points and eight rebounds, and Isaac Butts tallied 10 points and 11 rebounds. Donald Sims recorded 10 points, eight rebounds and four assists.
Andrew Goudelock tallied 19 points, six steals and five rebounds for the Cougars (21-11), and Donavan Monroe finished with 10 points. The 54 points were a season low for College of Charleston.
The Cougars could never get it going offensively and settled for 30 3-point tries out of 64 field goal attempts. They wound up shooting 28.1 percent from the field and made just eight 3-pointers. Appalachian State, on the other hand, shot 56.6 percent and made 15-of-25 in the second half.
The Mountaineers (22-11) were red hot in the first half too and shot 53.6 percent from the floor, including 3-of-4 from behind the arc, en route to a 40-24 halftime lead.
With the scored tied 9-9, Brand netted eight points in a 12-3 Appalachian State run that gave the Mountaineers a 21-12 cushion with 11:51 left in the period.
The margin grew to 16 at halftime thanks to a 10-3 Mountaineer spurt to end the frame. Brand started it with a pair of free throws, Butts scored four straight points and Sims capped the run with a fast-break layup off of a long defensive rebound.
The margin grew to 22 points early in the second half as Brand scored four points in a 9-3 Mountaineer run to open the frame. The Cougars began to press and got the lead down to 16 points on three occasions, with the last coming after a Jeremy Simmons dunk with 8:05 remaining.
The Cougars got a defensive stop, but Goudelock missed a runner on Charleston's trip down the floor. Brand responded with eight straight points to push the lead to 69-45 with 5:20 to play and put the game out of reach.
Game Notes: It's the Apps first appearance in the SoCon Tournament title game since 2000, when they defeated Charleston 77-67 to earn a bid to the NCAA Tournament... The Mountaineers are 10-3 in the SoCon Tournament under head coach Buzz Peterson... Sims has scored 69 points (23 ppg.) in his last three SoCon Tourney games... Charleston falls to 17-11 in all-time SoCon Tournament action... The Cougars have played in two of the last three championship games.
