The East Tennessee State Buccaneers and the Appalachian State Mountaineers meet in college basketball action from Holmes Convention Center on Friday night.
The East Tennessee State Buccaneers will look to bounce back from a mediocre 2020-21 season, finishing the year at 13-12 overall, including 8-7 in SoCon conference play. The Buccaneers had the #5 seed in the conference tournament, taking down Chattanooga in the quarterfinals before losing to UNC-Greensboro in the semis. The Buccaneers bring back a pair of double-digit scorers in Ledarrius Brewer (16.2 PPG, 4.5 RPG) and David Sloan (11.1 PPG, 4.3 APG) while also bringing in Jordan King (12.2 PPG) from Siena via the transfer portal. The Bucs also brought back Tyron Brewer (8.5 PPG, 4 RPG) and Silas Adheke (5.9 PPG, 6 RPG) to round out the likely starting five for the upcoming season. The Buccaneers are likely in the mix once again for the SoCon title this season, but it’s the usual suspects like Wofford, Chattanooga and Furman that are right there alongside ETSU to contend.
The Appalachian State Mountaineers will be looking to shake off a 65-53 loss at the hands of Iona in their season opener last time out. Adrian Delph was the lone Mountaineer to score in double figures with 15 points along with 8 rebounds while James Lewis Jr. had a team-high 9 rebounds with his 7 points and Xavion Brown chipped in a team-high 3 assists. Michael Almonacy added 9 points on 4 of 15 shooting, hitting just one of his 9 three-point attempts in the losing effort. App State shot 35% from the field, 13.6% from three and 47.1% from the foul line in the losing effort.
East Tennessee State is 1-4 ATS in their last 5 games overall and 1-4 ATS in their last 5 games as an underdog while the under is 4-1 in their last 5 Friday games. Appalachian State is 6-2 ATS in their last 8 home games and 8-18 ATS in their last 26 games as a home favorite while the under is 5-0 in their last 5 games as a favorite.
I can understand App State being favored at home, but the Mountaineers didn’t look good against Iona and we’ve seen this before from the Mountaineers, where they have unexplainable lapses on the offensive end of the floor. East Tennessee State’s yet to take the floor this season, but they bring back a pair of double-digit scorers and four starters while transferring in a third double-digit scorer in Jordan King and I just think that the Buccaneers end up with the win here to add to App State’s struggles to start the year. Give me the Buccaneers and the free bucket.