High Point stands 40 minutes away from the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament after an 80-66 win over archrival Elon Saturday night in Lynchburg, Va., in the semifinals of the 2003 Advance Auto Parts Big South Women's Basketball Championship.

The Panthers (18-11) will face top-seeded and six-time defending league champ Liberty (25-3) in Sunday's final (4:30 pm, Time Warner Cable Channel 69 in High Point/Greensboro).

The Panthers, who led Elon 35-32 at halftime, put four players in
double figures: seniors Misty Brockman (18 points), Gina Rosser (15 points) and Cebronica Scott (13 points), as well as junior Narelle Henry (14 points).

But HPU won this one on defense, by containing Elon's top scorer, Holly Andrews, and beating the taller Phoenix on the glass scarcely a week after Elon handed HPU a 68-41 beating in the Millis Center on Senior Night.

Both teams went right at each other from the start, as you'd expect old rivals to do. The first half featured five lead changes, plenty of physical play, and a couple important runs for each squad. HPU made an 8-0 run to take a 27-22 lead and went to the break clutching a 35-32 advantage.

"I think the first half was the difference," HPU head coach Tooey Loy said. "Last week we played hard, but it seemed like everything went their way - they grabbed loose balls, banked in 20-footers and we had played well but still found ourselves down 10 at the half. Then they scored a few quick baskets in the second half and we panicked."

But Saturday, it was the Phoenix (19-10) who got jumpy and tentative. Andrews, the league's second-leading scorer, was just 2-for-11 and was held without a field goal for the first 29 minutes. Her first bucket pulled Elon within 53-52 with 11:17 left.

The Phoenix were able to tie the score twice in the second half (the laterst at 55-all), but never regained the lead. HPU put together a 13-2 spurt to surge ahead 67-58 on a Scott basket with 5:09 to go, and Elon didn't come within eight points the rest of the way.

The toughest test of the season awaits the Panthers today, where they'll face a team that is 14-1 in the Vines Center this season and hasn't lost to a Big South team at home since February of 2001. Who beat the Flames that night? High Point, 58-53.

"To win, we need to do a lot of what we did against Elon," Loy said. "It's no secret we'll have to get the ball downcourt quick before their big post players can get back. "