Emily Mills scored a game-high 18 points and Charlena Martin added 14 points to help High Point advance to the championship game of the Provident Bank Xavier Invitational with a 53-51 win over East Tennessee State (0-4) Saturday afternoon in Cincinnati.

The Panthers (4-2) will meet host Xavier (a 78-35 winner over Central Michigan) in the title game Sunday afternoon at 3:00 pm.

The first half started extremely slow as both teams did not record a basket until the 17:08 mark when a jumper was good by ETSU's Lauren Trantham. High Point finally got on the board at the 15:16 mark by a three-pointer made by Katie O'Dell (eight points, team-high nine rebounds). The Panther's pulled ahead with a slim lead going into the break after Martin hit a running layup with two seconds on the clock after a Kate Jenner's steal for a score of 25-18.

In the second stanza, High Point held off the Bucs for most of the half with great shots from Mills outside shooting. However, ETSU grabbed the lead late in the half after a three-pointer from Trantham that put the score 50-47. The Panthers battled back with a Mills shot behind the arc (50-51) and then Martin gave the Panthers a 52-51 lead on a layup with 52 seconds left, and  Jenner (four points, eight rebounds, and six steals) added a free throw in the final seconds to seal it.

Xavier (3-2) got 23 points from Tara Boothe in its win Saturday.