CHARLESTON, S.C. - The Mountaineers fell behind early against the potent College of Charleston offense and despite outscoring the Cougars in the second half, Appalachian State University men's basketball suffered a 73-64 defeat on Saturday afternoon at the Carolina First Arena.

Appalachian trailed by as many as 15 points early in the second half before cutting the deficit to single digits on four occasions. The Apps never pulled closer than nine points after the intermission as the Cougars seemingly always found an answer to Mountaineer runs.

The Apps (8-11, 4-5 SoCon) shot 37.5 percent in the first half and 40 percent after the break to finish at 39.3 percent with three treys in nine attempts. Charleston shot a scorching 54.8 percent in the opening period but was cooled off by the ASU defenders to finish the game at 44.8 percent.

Donald Sims led Appalachian for a second-straight game with 21 points on 7-of-14 shooting with four of ASU's eight assists and three rebounds.

CofC (14-6, 7-1) won the battle of the  boards by a slim 37-35 margin, paced by nine rebounds by Jeremy Simmons. Simmons led the Cougars with 18 points and scored his 1,000th career point in the second half.

Anthony Breeze made his first start of the season for the Black and Gold and produced a career-best 10 points in the first half before sustaining a head injury. The junior added a pair of rebounds in 15 minutes on the floor.

Andre Williamson came off the bench for the first time this season and responded with 10 rebounds, four points and a huge block on CofC's Andrew Goudelock in the second half after the Mountaineers cut the score to 55-46 with 13 minutes to play.

CofC's newly-minted career scoring leader was limited to a modest 15 points on 7-of-21 shooting for the night with just one three-pointer in seven attempts. It was Goudelock's second-lowest output of the season and lowest in conference play this season.

CofC shot just 26.1 percent from downtown on the night. ASU totaled eight assists and eight turnovers while CofC notched 10 assists to seven turnovers, including four Mountaineer steals. Jeremi Booth led ASU with two steals and added nine points and five rebounds in 25 minutes off the bench.

Omar Carter started sluggish in the first half, missing his first five shots before sinking 4-of-10 field goals after the break to finish with 10 points, eight rebounds and a pair of assists.

The home team's 73 points marked its lowest in eight league contests and snapped a string of five games with at least 76 points, but improved to 7-1 in home contests on the season.

Charleston jumped out to an early double-digit lead before Sims got rolling and scored 12 of ASU's final 19 points in the first half as the Apps trailed 42-31 at the intermission.

The Mountaineers return home to Boone on Thursday night for a Southern Conference final rematch from last season as Wofford visits in the only regular season meeting between the teams. The game is scheduled to tip off at 7 p.m. and will be broadcast regionally on SportSouth.

ASU's chance to even the season series with Charleston comes in the final week of the regular season when the Cougars visit the Holmes Center on February 24.