In a clash of the top two teams in the Big South, host Birmingham-Southern held High Point to 23 percent shooting and used a 22-6 run to pull away for a 68-43 victory Wednesday night at Birmingham's Bill Battle Coliseum.

Birmingham-Southern improves to 14-5 (7-2 in Big South play), while High Point saw its three-game win streak snapped and dips to 13-6, 6-2 in the Conference.

The victory in the battle of Panthers gives BSC a half-game lead in the League standings, although Birmingham-Southern is ineligible for the Big South Tournament or the automatic bid that goes to its champion until after the 2005-06 season.

High Point now stands a game ahead of Liberty, Radford, and Coastal Carolina (all 5-3 in the Conference) in the race for the top seed and home-court advantage in the 2004 Big South Tournament.

Jerry Echenique led HPU with 10 points, while Danny Gathings tallied nine points and Zione White eight points.

High Point shot just 18 percent (5-of-28) in the first half, and finished the game 3-of-25 from three-point range.

Grant Davis notched a game-high 18 points for BSC. Shema Mbyirukira (14 points), Jakob Sigurdarson (13 points) and Derrick Williams (10 points) also reached double figures for the Panthers of the Alabama variety.

BSC, the nation's top three-point shooting team, got a pair of treys in the opening minutes to open up a 10-2 lead after Derrick Williams connected from long-range. HPU then scored seven of the next eight points to pull within 11-9 at the 11:59 mark after Javier Palacios scored on a fast break and Patrick Hilliman converted a foul shot.

The teams traded baskets once before BSC held High Point without a field goal for more than ten minutes and put together a 17-0 run to race out to a 30-11 advantage with 3:12 to go in the half. Birmingham-Southern's Grant Davis scored eight of his 11 first-half points during the stretch before HPU clawed within 33-19 at intermission.

High Point came out of the second-half gates on a 9-2 streak to pull within 35-28 at the 14:37 mark following two Echenique free throws. HPU would trail by just seven points on three more occasions before BSC's 22-6 stretch ended any chance High Point had of a road victory.

BSC won the battle of the boards, 46-30. Mbyirukira tallied six blocked shots.

HPU returns home Saturday to host Liberty at 7:00 pm in the Millis Center.