BOONE, N.C. - Five seniors started in their final regular season home game and helped Appalachian State University men's basketball to an 82-68 win over Samford on Saturday. The win gave the Southern Conference North division champion Mountaineers 20 victories on the season as the squad looks ahead to next weekend's league tournament in Charlotte.

Donald Sims entered the game as the Mountaineers held a 5-2 lead and immediately scored eight points to bolster the squad. He added six more later in the half and finished with a game-high 25 points on six three pointers and 8-of-14 shooting. The junior added four rebounds and three assists.

Appalachian (20-11, 13-5) came out firing, and after missing five of its first six shots, regrouped to take a 14-point lead late in the first half. In the period, the Apps shot 53.3 percent from the floor and 13-for-23 from downtown. For the game, ASU shot 56.9 percent from the floor.

As in the first meeting this season, ASU's large early lead was short-lived as Samford rattled off 11-straight points to end the half trailing by just three points at 41-38.

The Bulldogs (11-19, 5-13) opened the game with hot hands themselves, shooting 57.1 percent from the floor in the opening 20 minutes and 55.8 percent in the game. Samford sank 12-of-23 three-pointers on the afternoon and 24-of-43 overall. SU cut the score to one point on each of its first two possessions of the second half, but Isaac Butts responded with buckets on the next trip down the floor. The junior finished the game with eight points and seven rebounds.

Appalachian increased the lead back out to 10 points midway through the half before one final push from the Bulldogs cut the lead down to just three points just two minutes later. ASU responded with an 8-0 run and never let Samford any closer than eight points for the remainder of the game.

In his final regular season home game in the Black and Gold, Kellen Brand scored 18 points on 7-of-12 shooting with a career-high eight assists, five rebounds and a steal. Classmate Josh Hunter filled up the box score as well with eight points, five rebounds, three assists and three steals. In addition to his 27 minutes on the court during the contest, the senior performed the national anthem beforehand as well.

Samford was led by 15 points from Josh Davis, while Kaylin Johnson added 11 and Jeffrey Merritt scored 10 points and led the team with four rebounds.

The Apps hauled in 29 rebounds, compared to just 17 for the Bulldogs, including just two on the offensive glass.

Making his first career start, A.J. Highsmith sank his only shot attempt of the game for three points in seven minutes. Ryann Abraham scored five points and added an assist, a rebound and one steal to close out his Holmes Center career.

Forward Tyler Webb made his third start of the season and started the game on a positive note by winning the tip. He finished the game with two rebounds in eight minutes. Jeremi Booth came off the bench to add 15 points on four treys with four steals.

Appalachian heads to the SoCon Tournament for a Saturday evening contest against the winner of Friday's opening round contest between The Citadel and the North's fifth seed.