CONWAY, S.C. – Appalachian State men's basketball dropped a road Sun Belt contest at Coastal Carolina on Saturday by a 89-72 score.

Justin Forrest paced the Mountaineers (5-13, 0-5 SBC) with a team-high 21 points, including a perfect 6-of-6 mark from the free throw line, a team-high four assists and a game-high tying three steals.

Isaac Johnson added nine points, a game-high 11 rebounds and two steals. Johnson has now reached double figures in the rebounding department in seven games this season, including the last two.

Off the bench, Breki Gylfason tallied a career-high eight points, Tyrell Johnson added eight points and five rebounds and Bennett Holley had five points and a season-high four rebounds. In all, the App State bench scored 27 points, marking the third straight game the Mountaineer bench has scored 27 or more points. The Black and Gold bench is averaging 29.7 points over its last three games.

Coastal Carolina (8-9, 2-3 SBC) scored the first 16 points of the game to jump out to a 16-0 edge. App State (5-13, 0-5 SBC) chipped away at the Chanticleer lead and a three from Gylfason with 1:51 left in the first half cut the deficit to 39-29. Coastal Carolina pushed its lead back to 14 points at 43-29, but another three from Gylfason in the final minute of the half trimmed the Chanticleer lead to 43-32 at the intermission.

The Mountaineers continued to cut into the Coastal Carolina lead in the second half, pulling within two points at 56-54 on a layup from Tyrell Johnson. The Chanticleers answered with the next 12 points to push their lead back to 68-54 with just under nine minutes to play. The Black and Gold pulled to within 10 points at 70-60, but a 13-0 spurt by Coastal Carolina gave them a 83-60 lead and put the game out of reach.

Zac Cuthbertson paced Coastal Carolina with a game-high 24 points and a team-high tying seven rebounds. Ajay Sanders added 14 points and Ebrima Dibba and DaVante Jones both finished with 12 points for the Chanticleers.

App State will return to the road for two more games next week. The Black and Gold will be play at Arkansas State on Thursday at 8 p.m. EST, followed a 4 p.m. EST contest at Little Rock on Jan. 26. Both games will be broadcast on ESPN+ and can be heard on the Appalachian IMG Sports Network.