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Appalachian State never trailed in its contest Saturday against Western Carolina, beating the Catamounts 74-65 in Boone.

Nathan Healy had a career-high 24 points, grabbed eight rebounds and added a career-best seven steals to help the Mountaineers capture its ninth win of the season and fifth win in the Southern Conference.

The Mountaineers held an 11-point lead with under 10 minutes left in the game, but a big scoring run from Western brought them to within just one point with two minutes remaining.

Four points from Healy and a three-pointer from Jay Canty in the final 1:30 of the game put the final touches on this big rivalry win.

App State holds the overall lead in the series with WCU. The Mountaineers are 112-67 all-time against the Catamounts.

After Healy’s 24 points, App State got 19 points and five assists from Canty, nine points from Jamaal Trice off the bench, eight points from Tab Hamilton and six points from Tevin Baskin. The hot-shooting Mountaineers hit 53-percent of its shots from the field, including 7-14 from behind the three-point arc.

On the other hand, the Catamounts struggled shooting all night long, particularly from three-point range. WCU shot just 41-percent overall and just 30-percent from the three-point line.

Trey Sumler was the high scorer for the visiting team with 21 points. James Sinclair scored 17 and Tawaski King added nine points.

Western saw its record fall to 8-14 overall an 5-5 in the SoCon.

This week, the Mountaineers face a pair of tough games on the road. App travels to Statesboro to take on Georgia Southern on Thursday before turning right around and heading to conference-leading Davidson on Saturday.

Southern Conference Standings

North Division

1 Elon: 15-7 overall, 8-2 conference

2 Samford: 7-15 overall, 5-4 conference

3 Appalachan State: 9-12 overall, 5-5 conference

4 Western Carolina: 8-14 overall, 5-5 conference

5 UNC-Greensboro: 6-15 overall, 4-6 conference

6 Chattanooga: 8-14 overall, 3-6 conference

South Division

1 Davidson: 15-7 overall, 10-1 conference

2 College of Charleston: 16-7 overall, 8-3 conference

3 Georgia Southern: 10-13 overall, 4-6 conference

4 Furman: 6-14 overall, 3-6 conference

5 Citadel: 6-15 overall, 3-8 conference

6 Wofford: 8-15 overall, 2-8 conference