Jerry Echenique and Danny Gathings scored 20 points apiece and helped High Point remain atop the Big South Conference standings with an important 83-70 victory over defending league-champ UNC Asheville Saturday at the Justice Center in Asheville.
The Panthers improve to 13-5 (6-1 in Big South play), and now have at least a two-game cushion in the loss column over all teams eligible for the conference title. The win was the 12th in the last 14 contests for HPU.
UNCA falls to 4-15 and 2-6 in the league.
Gathings added 12 rebounds for his ninth double-double of the season, and Echenique just missed a double-double with nine boards. Zione White (14 points) also scored in double-digits for HPU, while Patrick Hilliman contributed a career-high nine points and three blocks.
High Point broke open a tie game with an 11-2 run to take command at 60-51 with 11:27 to play. The Bulldogs had rallied from a 12-point deficit, but were never able to take the lead.
The Panthers jumped out to a 21-9 advantage in the first half and forced six early steals, including two back-to-back that turned into easy layups at the other end for Gathings and Javier Palacios at the 12:19 mark of the first half.
HPU led by as many as 12 points on numerous occasions in the opening period, but the Bulldogs hunkered down and used a 16-7 run to claw within 34-32 on an old-fashioned three-point play by Chad Mohn with 3:12 left before intermission.
The Panthers were held without a field goal for more than six minutes in the latter portion of the period before Echenique hit Gathings with a long pass on a fast break for an easy layup. HPU scored the final five points of the half to take a 39-32 lead to the break.
Asheville scored 13 of the first 19 points of the second half to tie the score for the first time since the opening moments when Billy Allen threw down a thunderous dunk at the 14:58 mark for a 45-all deadlock, bringing the Justice Center crowd to its feet.
HPU got baskets from Gathings and Hilliman, while Allen nailed a pair of layups for a 49-49 deadlock before the Panthers made their run. Chris Meeks drained the first of three crucial three-point shots to give High Point a 52-49 advantage, Hilliman blocked Allen's wide-open layup attempt at the other end, and pushed the ball downcourt to Palacios, who drained a wide-open trey. UNCA's K.J. Garland raced downcourt for a layup, but the Panthers went coast to coast the other way for another Meeks long bomb to make it 60-51 with 11:27 to go.
Asheville didn't get within six points the rest of the way, and the Panthers won for the first time in nine tries at the Justice Center, setting a school record for Big South victories in a season in the process.
The Bulldogs had three players score in double-figures: Garland (18 points), Mohn (13 points) and Omar Collington (10 points).
HPU shot 49.3 percent (36-of-73) from the floor and outrebounded Asheville, 45-36. Gathings surpassed the 750-point plateau for his 1 1/2-season High Point career.
"When it counted, we made shots and got the tempo up like we wanted," HPU head coach Bart Lundy said. "This performance is a credit to our team."
The win sets up a showdown for first place in the Big South Wednesday night in Birmingham between HPU and second-palce Birmingham-Southern (5-2 in the league), which held off Winthrop 70-69 earlier on Saturday. BSC is ineligible for the Big South Tournament until the 2005-06 season, but can qualify for a regular-season crown.
"It's gonna take a lot of guts to beat them down there," Lundy said. "But if we can get a win in their building, it would be huge."
