Katie Feenstra scored 28 points and added 13 rebounds to lead Liberty to its seventh-straight Big South championship with an 84-71 win over High Point Sunday afternoon in the Vines Center.

The Panthers, who had knocked off Radford and sent rival Elon home and to the Southern Conference with a semifinal defeat, finished the season at 18-12.

The Lady Flames (26-3) won their 22nd straight game overall and 18th straight in the Vines Center against a Big South opponent, and earned the League's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

"I thought we definitely had our chances," said High Point head coach Tooey Loy, who took HPU to the league championship game for the first time ever and in just the Panthers' fourth tournament appearance.

"We played hard for 40 minutes. But it wasn't our night shooting for sure. We had a lot of good open looks that we couldn't knock down."

In the biggest game in the program's history since HPU's 1978 AIAW Small College National Championship win over South Carolina State, the Panthers shot 41 percent against a team which features the tallest player in Big South history (the 6-8 Feenstra, who swept the league's regular-season and tournament MVP awards).

But Feenstra, who is seven inches taller than any of HPU's regulars, exploded for 28 points and 13 rebounds to lead the Flames into the NCAA bracket for the seventh time.

Gina Rosser scored HPU's first seven points before the Flames used a 10-0 run to jump ahead 21-7 on Kristal Tharp's three-pointer with 12:03 to play before halftime. Liberty built a 17-point lead before five points by Rosser and a trey by Misty Brockman helped the Panthers pull within 43-32 at halftime.

Despite being outshot (49 percent to 37 percent) and outrebounded (31-9) in the first half, the Panthers could still punch their Big Dance passes if they could overcome an 11-point lead in the final 20 minutes.
 
They nearly did in less than half the time. Trailing 52-39, HPU clawed to within two points and silenced the crowd with a 13-2 run that cut Liberty's advantage to 54-52 with 14:03 to play.

But Liberty responded with a 13-2 run of its own to surge ahead 67-54 with 9:03 left. The Panthers missed seven shots in a row to let the Flames take control, and Liberty made plans to watch next Sunday's selection show to learn their destination.

Tharp added 18 points and joined Feenstra on the All-Tournament Team, as did Brockman, Henry (a team-high 16 points), and Coastal Carolina's Nikki Reddick.

Graduation takes Rosser, Brockman, Cebronica Scott and Stephanie Scott, but the program shouldn't drop off at all in next season, which will be Loy's third as the head man at HPU.

"In the seniors' first year (1999-2000), we were 6-22 in our first D-I season," said Loy, who was an assistant under Joe Ellenburg at the time. "Three years later we're 18-12 and make the conference championship game with some good chances to win it. We've come a long way, and it's not over yet."