Freddy Hicks knocked down a leaning shot at the buzzer from just above the right elbow Sunday as fourth-seed Arkansas State upset No. 1-seed Appalachian State 67-65 in the semifinals of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament at the Pensacola Bay Center in Pensacola, Fla.
"I don't know if I've had a team in 15 years of coaching this game that has grown as much as this team," ASU Coach Bryan Hodgson said after the game. "The selflessness, the discipline, the attention to detail, it seems like it gets better and better every single game. We just beat a really really good basketball team."
Arkansas State (18-15) held a 39-29 halftime lead, but Appalachian State chipped away in the second half and eventually pulled ahead of the Red Wolves 63-62 on a dunk from Justin Abson with 4:38 remaining. Caleb Field put ASU back ahead 64-63 with a pair of free throws coming out of the under-four media timeout.
The back-and-forth continued as Myles Tate buried a three-pointer with 2:33 left to put the Mountaineers back on top 65-63. Fields had an answer on the other end, knocking down a jump shot in the paint on the next possession to even the score at 65-65 at the 2:16 mark.
Neither team would score another point until Hicks' buzzer-beater. The junior guard from Searcy made 8 of his 9 field attempts in the game and finished with 19 points and seven rebounds.
"I told [Coach Hodgson] I was going to make the shot," Hicks said on the radio after the game. "Really, it was my teammates that put me in that spot. They trusted me to make the shot. It could have been very well any of us the way everybody scores on this team. I just thank god it was me tonight."
Hicks added: "It was really surreal actually. I'm very blessed to hit that shot. I'm pretty sure the feeling that comes tomorrow will be way better than that one. We never really care who we play, we're just going to go out there and give it our all and give it our best."
Fields scored a game-high 23 points and converted on 8 of 9 shots from the free-throw line. Fields also dished out a game-high six assists for the Red Wolves, while Izaiyah Nelson was a force on the glass, collecting 13 rebounds to go along with eight points.
Terence Harcum led Appalachian State (27-6) with a team-high 15 points. Tate shot 5 of 10 from the field and scored 11 points, while Abson made all three of his field goal attempts and finished with 10 points and seven rebounds for the Mountaineers.
With the win, Arkansas State advanced to the championship game of the Sun Belt Tournament where it will face No. 2 seed James Madison at 6 p.m. Central tonight. The third-seeded Dukes squeaked by No. 11 seed Texas State 73-68 Sunday night to advance to the title game.
"Extremely proud of these guys. All the credit goes to these players," Hodgson said. "That's a team that not many people would want to play in the NCAA Tournament. To find a way to beat them, we did it with rebounding and we did it defensively. One of our best defensive performances of the year."