Sun Belt announces App State men's, women's basketball conference schedules

NEW ORLEANS — The Sun Belt Conference has announced the conference schedules for both the App State men's and women's basketball teams.

The 18-game slate on the men's side includes nine games at the Holmes Convocation Center against conference foes, where the Mountaineers went unbeaten a season ago.

The Mountaineers will open Sun Belt play on Dec. 18 at Louisiana before hosting Troy on Jan. 2 in their conference home-opener.

Other home highlights include contests with James Madison on Jan. 11, Georgia State on Feb. 1, and a homestand against Georgia Southern and Marshall Feb. 20 and Feb. 22 to close out the home schedule.

App State will also welcome Southern Miss to the Holmes Center on Feb. 5., marking the first time the Golden Eagles will visit the Holmes Center and their first trip to Boone since 1991.

Coach Kerns and his squad will tip off the 2024-25 season at the Holmes Center on Nov. 4 against the Miami (OH) RedHawks as part of the MAC-SBC Challenge. It will mark the first meeting between the two teams.

Following the regular-season schedule, the Mountaineers will trek to the Pensacola Bay Center in Pensacola, Fla., for the Sun Belt Tournament, which is slated to begin March 4, with the winner punching its ticket to the NCAA Tournament.

The 2024-25 conference schedule includes 12 matchups against Sun Belt East Division opponents. The Mountaineers went undefeated a season ago against Sun Belt East foes and are 35-14 (.714 winning percentage) against East Division opponents in the Dustin Kerns era.

App State will enter the 2024-25 season as the reigning Sun Belt regular-season champions after posting a program-best 16-2 record in Sun Belt play last season. It was the program's first regular-season conference title since 1978-79. The Mountaineers were one of 13 teams in the country to post at least 16 conference wins in 2023-24.

Additionally, the Mountaineers were one of 12 teams in NCAA Division I to go undefeated at home. Entering the 2024-25 season, the Mountaineers own the 10th-longest home winning streak in the country and haven't lost a game at the Holmes Convocation Center since Feb. 18, 2023.

The 2024-25 squad will feature two veteran returners in CJ Huntley and Myles Tate as well as an experienced group of newcomers and three freshmen. App State has posted five consecutive seasons with a winning percentage of .500 or better for the first time since 1987-92.

On the women's basketball side, the schedule features nine home matchups for the Mountaineers as well as the return of the MAC-SBC Challenge.

The Black and Gold will open the season with the first installment of the 2024-25 MAC-SBC Challenge on Nov. 4 against Miami (OH) in Oxford, Ohio. The Mountaineers will open Sun Belt play on Dec. 29 with a home clash with Arkansas State. The Sun Belt Tournament is slated for March 4-10 at the Pensacola Bay Center in Pensacola, Fla. All 14 teams will qualify for the tournament with the champions punching their tickets to the NCAA Tournament.

The 2024-25 season will mark the first season in Boone for head coach Alaura Sharp. Sharp was hired on April 5, 2024 as the ninth coach of the App State program after serving as the Presbyterian head coach for six seasons. She led the Blue Hose to the program's first NCAA Tournament berth and first NCAA Tournament victory over Sacred Heart in the First Four. She also helped Presbyterian to its first Big South Tournament Title, the first No. 5 seed to ever win the Big South women's basketball tournament, and set the program's wins record. Prior to her time at Presbyterian, Sharp spent two seasons apiece at Louisiana Tech and Southern Miss as an assistant, helping both teams earn postseason bids. She also made stops at Garden City CC (Kan.) and Lamar CC (Colo.)

Returning for the Mountaineers are seniors Emily Carver, J'Mani Ingram, Zada Porter, and Samantha LaFon as well as junior Rylan Moffitt. The 2024-25 roster features four new international additions as freshman Hekla Nökkvadóttir will represent Iceland, junior Elena Pericic will represent Croatia, senior Mara Neira will represent Spain, and senior Georgia Gray will represent Australia. Also joining the Mountaineers this year is freshman Jazlyn Harris, juniors Seneya Martinez and Emily Hege, seniors Eleyana Tafisi and Asjah Inniss, and graduate student Zoë McCrary.