High Point survived a furious charge from homestanding Coastal Carolina and hit five crucial free throws in the final 40 seconds to stay perfect in Big South play with a 75-69 win over the Chanticleers Monday night at Conway's Kimbel Arena.
The Panthers, who collected their eighth win in their last nine contests, improved to 9-4 (2-0 in the League), while Coastal dropped to 6-7 (1-1).
Jerry Echenique led HPU with 17 points and eight rebounds, while Danny Gathings notched his sixth double-double of the year with a 15-point, 10-rebound performance. Zione White (12 points) and Landon Quick (a career-high 10 points) also reached double-figures for the victorious Panthers.
It was High Point's first win in Conway since the 1978-79 season, and broke a five-game losing streak to the Chants in Kimbel Arena. With the victory, the Panthers won both games on the annual Big South beach trip (starting with HPU's 80-66 win at Charleston Southern) for the first time in school history.
High Point led from start to finish, and trotted to intermission with a 38-28 advantage on the strength of Echenique's 10 points and seven rebounds in the first 20 minutes.
The Panthers took their biggest lead (15 points) at 55-40 following an Echenique jumper with 10:35 to play. But the Chants caught a second wind and rattled off a 12-1 run to get within 56-52 at the 6:25 mark when Brandon Newby scored two of his game-high 20 points.
HPU would build its lead back to nine points (62-53) on a White three-pointer with 4:45 to go, but the game was far from over. The Chants scored 12 of the next 16 points to pull within 67-65 after Newby buried a three with 1:47 to go.
Two Newby free throws were sandwiched between a Gathings layup and single free throws by Quick and White, and then Mihai Raducanu scored on a layup with 15.9 seconds left to keep CCU within striking distance at 71-69. But White and Echenique each nailed a pair of critical foul shots to give HPU a thrilling six-point win.
The Chants got solid efforts from Pele Paelay (14 points) and Raducanu (13 points) off the bench.
The Panthers frustrated reigning Big South Player of the Week E.J. Gallup all night long and held him to five points on just 2-of-12 shooting. Gallup entered averaging 18.2 points a game.
"It was a big goal of ours to contain [Gallup]," HPU head coach Bart Lundy said. "We knew that if he started knocking down shots that we'd be in big trouble. We rotated four or five guys on him, and they did a great job defensively.
"Our guys continue to amaze me. They stepped up and made free throws and did what they had to do to win at the end."
"We know this is a tough place to come in and win," Quick said. "So it puts us in great shape to come in and leave with a victory."
High Point will now prepare for an impending clash with Big South juggernaut Winthrop on Thursday night (7:00 pm) in the Panthers' home opener in the Millis Center.
"Winthrop is the pride of the league right now," Lundy said. "If you're going to make noise in the Big South you have to go through them. Our guys know that, and they'll be ready to play."
To read the game notes for the Winthrop game, click here.
