ROCK HILL, S.C. - For the third-straight season, Appalachian State University men's basketball's BracketBuster contest went down to the wire, as Winthrop escaped with 65-63 win over the Mountaineers on Saturday.

The Apps scraped back from a nine-point second half deficit and took three late leads in the game before three Eagle treys and a pair of free throws gave Winthrop a late three point edge.

With the final possession of the game, Marcus Wright drew a foul for three shots at the line with just 0.7 seconds showing on the clock. The freshman missed the first shot and made the second, before intentionally missing the third. Josh Hunter grabbed the rebound and tipped it off the back iron before the shot rimmed out to end the game.

Appalachian (11-16) ended a four-minute scoring drought with a 10-0 run over the next three to take its first lead of the game with just over four minutes at 55-54.

Winthrop scored the first eight points of the game before Donald Sims found the bottom of the net from downtown to get the Apps on the board. Appalachian then began to close on the Eagles with the help of four first-half three pointers and a pair of blocks and six rebounds from Andre Williamson. The freshman forward finished the game with a career-best 11 rebounds and five points on 2-of-3 shooting.

The Eagles (9-18) kept a 28-22 lead at the intermission but it took just two minutes for Donterious Hughes and the Apps to tie the game at 30-30.

Sims led the Mountaineers with 18 points and four three-pointers with two rebounds and an assist. Hunter had 11 points and nine rebounds in the game to go along with two steals and two assists.

Wright scored all seven points at the charity stripe as the Apps were 20-of-34 from the line in the game, compared to 11-for-18 for the Eagles. The Mountaineers shot 36.7 percent from the field and sank 7-of-20 treys.

Each of Appalachian's last five games have been decided by five or fewer points, and all three BracketBuster games have been determined by a total of five points as ASU moves to 1-2 in the event.

The Mountaineers return home to close out the regular season next weekend. The team hosts Chattanooga on Thursday at 7 p.m. and Samford on Saturday at 3:30 p.m.