BOONE, N.C. — Behind a career-high 25 points from Frank Eaves, Appalachian State University men's basketball cruised to an 82-74 win over Hampton on Monday night at the Holmes Center.

Appalachian State (2-2) raced out to a 13-2 lead and never trailed en route to the home-opening triumph. After taking the early 11-point lead, the Mountaineers never led by less than five points and expanded the advantage to as many as 15 during the second half of the comfortable victory.

The Mountaineers set the tone early, scoring the first nine points of the ball game to put the Pirates (1-4) into an early hole that they were unable to dig out of.

Jacob Lawson's fast break dunk at the 15:52 mark gave Appalachian its first double-digit lead of the ballgame (13-2), but Hampton responded with a 10-4 run to close the gap to just five points (17-12) midway through the opening period.

The Mountaineers looked as if they would head to the break with a 10-point lead, but Hampton's Deron Powers hit a three-pointer with two seconds left to make it 43-36 at the break and give the Pirates some momentum heading into the locker room.

Despite the three pointer to end the half, Appalachian roared out of the locker room and outscored the Pirates 10-2 over the first four minutes of the second half to take a commanding 53-38 lead and held a double-digit advantage for nearly the entire half.

Hampton was able to cut the deficit to six points (80-74) with 10 seconds to play, but Chris Burgess hit a pair of free throws in the closing moments to make the final 82-74.

Eaves made 6-of-13 shots from the field and 12-of-12 from the foul line to tally the career-best 25 points. He surpassed his previous career high of 20, set last Wednesday in a loss at Furman. The 6-2 junior guard has scored at least 19 points in three-straight games.

Burgess also set a new career high with 20 points on 4-of-7 shooting from the floor and 10-of-12 marksmanship from the line. Freshman forward Griffin Kinney added 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting and a team-high-tying five rebounds off the bench to round out three Mountaineers in double-figures.

In all, Appalachian made 44.2 percent of its shots from the field (23-of-52) and 81.6 percent from the from the free-throw line (31-of-38). The Pirates shot just 39.6 percent (21-of-53) of their shots, including 8-of-24 from long range.

Brian Darden scored 20 points for Hampton while Powers added 13 and Quinton Chievous had 11 and grabbed a team-high seven rebounds.

The Mountaineers will have 10 days off before returning to action on Dec. 4 at Jacksonville. Tipoff for the game against the Dolphins is slated for 7 p.m.

NOTES: Appalachian State moved to 1-0 all-time against Hampton and 5-4 against teams from the Mid-Eastern Atlantic Conference ... after dropping 10-straight non-conference games against Division I opponents, Appalachian has now won two in a row for the first time since 2009 (Nov. 28 vs. Morgan State and Nov. 30 vs. Winthrop) ... the 72 combined free throws were the most in an App State basketball game since Feb. 8, 2014, when the Mountaineers and Western Carolina combined to shoot 81 free throws in an overtime contest ... Tab Hamilton returned from a three-game suspension for a violation of team rules and grabbed five rebounds ... Burgess and Eaves combined to go 22-of-24 (91.7 percent) from the charity stripe ... Appalachian outscored Hampton 34-20 in the paint ... the Mountaineers have now led for 69:44 of a possible 80 minutes over the past two games ... App State's free-throw percentage was its highest since connecting on 28-of-34 attempts (82.4 percent) in an 83-70 win over UNCG on Jan. 14, 2013.