There was no question for Sebastian Koch. Once the first one fell, he wasn’t missing the second one.
“In our lifetime, we’ve taken a million free throws,” the Elon University junior guard said afterwards. “(I was) just trying to stay with my rhythm and make it. When I made the first free throw, I knew I was going to make the second one.”
Koch hit two free throws with 4.5 seconds left to give the Phoenix a one-point lead, and two more free throws later, Elon could call itself a comeback winner for the second straight game, this time with a 61-58 victory against visiting Appalachian State University on Thursday, Feb. 14.
Five days after pulling off an 11-3 run in the final 3:37 of a win against Furman University, Elon dealt with adversity well, but not just the adversity that comes with an eight-point deficit on the scoreboard with 5:41 left. The Phoenix was down three starters: leading scorer junior forward Lucas Troutman (sprained right ankle), freshman guard Tanner Samson (strep throat) and sophomore guard Austin Hamilton (torn ACL), who was ruled out for the season a month ago.
Elon junior forward Ryley Beaumont scored eight of his game-high 22 points in those final minutes to help the Phoenix pull off the comeback. He also snagged 13 rebounds for his third double-double of the season.
“He was a warrior tonight,” said Elon head coach Matt Matheny. “He has really stepped up with Lucas going down the last two games. He made tough plays, he made aggressive plays. I thought he made the right plays. His leadership is unbelievable.”
In the first half, Elon fought back from a seven-point deficit with 7:46 left to take a 31-26 lead into halftime. But the Mountaineers opened the second half on a 9-0 run and the game was tied at 40 after Appalachian State sophomore forward Jay Canty completed a three-point play with 12:30 left.
Elon senior guard Josh Bonney hit a jumper to return the Phoenix to a lead, but the Mountaineers went on a 13-3 run over the next 5:46 to take a 53-45 lead with less than six minutes left.
That's when Beaumont went off. But perhaps the most key play came from sophomore guard Kevin Blake.
Blake missed some time at the beginning of the season with a knee injury and was making his first career start in Samson’s place. He also was injured about two minutes into the second half, clutching his knee and limping to the bench. He returned five minutes later, though.
“We talked a little bit about it before the game, me, Sebastian and (junior guard) Jack (Isenbarger),” Beaumont said. “Obviously, with Austin still out, Lucas out, Tanner not playing, it’s going to take a lot, it’s going to take our team coming together, people who aren’t used to bigger roles stepping up. It’s something that we needed to facilitate.”
With Elon down 54-50 and 2:45 left on the clock, Beaumont missed an and-one and the rebound bounced around a lot of hands. The ball ended up beyond half-court, and Blake extended his arms to snag it. Seconds later, Beaumont sunk a jumper to pull the Phoenix within one.
The Mountaineers never got more than a possession ahead after that.
On the ensuing Appalachian State possession, Blake stole the ball from Canty and Isenbarger brought the ball up the court. Elon didn’t call a timeout, and Koch found himself dribbling with the seconds winding down.
“We just tried to run our offense and I saw that nobody was open and time was ticking,” he said. “Coach always tells me be aggressive, so I just took that to heart, went to the basket. If they wouldn’t have called a foul, I would have dumped it to (sophomore guard) Ryan (Winters). I would have passed it to Ryan and he would have made the lay-up.”
Appalachian State senior guard Jamaal Trice fouled Koch and the guard from Munich, Germany knocked down both shots from the charity stripe.
Blake came up with another clutch defensive play on the ensuing in-bounds pass, playing tight coverage on Appalachian State senior forward Nathan Healy’s intended target and forcing a turnover when Healy’s pass sailed out-of-bounds.
Isenbarger hit two free throws after being fouled on the in-bounds pass, and Mountaineers sophomore guard Mike Neal missed a long, desperation three-pointer in the final seconds.
“In the last two games, we’ve really handled adversity really well,” Matheny said. “They don’t look at the scoreboard. That’s what I like about our guys. Our guys don’t look up until the very end, until time and score is a factor. It would be easy to get discouraged down eight with five-and-a-half, six minutes to go. They just played. This was a special victory because of what we did, what our players did.”
Isenbarger chipped in 16 points with five rebounds and five assists and Koch had 11 points and six rebounds on the night.
Blake and Winters played 26 minutes each and found themselves on the court in the final minutes.
“They’re guys that stepped up,” Beaumont said. “Ryan has been coming in tough every game, he’s been battling, getting boards, doing things that we needed him to do. Both him and Kevin, and they did a great job with it tonight.”
Canty scored a team-high 17 points and snagged nine rebounds, while Healy had 12 points and seven boards.
Elon moves to 17-8 overall, 10-3 in conference play, first in the North Division, while Appalachian State falls to 11-14 overall and 7-7 in the SoCon.
“This is a special victory,” Matheny said. “We need to get better to be good enough to be successful in March. We have to improve. We’re not good enough yet, we have to get better. And we got better from this experience.”
The Phoenix faces Western Carolina University, who now sits in second place in the North Division, at 7 p.m. Saturday in Alumni Gym.
Game Notes • It was the first game Troutman ever missed in his career. • Matheny said he expects Samson to play Saturday and there’s a good chance Troutman will play, but nothing is definite yet. • For a team that usually shoots the three-pointer a lot, Elon only attempted 15 treys and made just five. Matheny credited Appalachian State’s defensive pressure. Not to be outdone, the Elon defense held the Mountaineers to a paltry 18.8 percent from beyond the arc.