High Point rallied from an 18-point second-half deficit and held on to knock off Big South-leading Birmingham-Southern, 63-62, in a battle of Panthers Monday night in the Millis Center.
HPU improves to 15-10 (8-6 in Conference play), while BSC falls to 17-7 and 10-4 in the League.
Zione White led all scorers with 16 points, while Danny Gathings tossed in 15 points and Jerry Echenique added 11 points for HPU.
High Point used a 27-8 run to surge ahead and held BSC without a field goal in the final 5:33 to snap a three-game skid and take over sole possession of fourth place in the Big South (and the third seed in the season-ending Big South Tournament).
Grant Davis and James Collins paced Birmingham-Southern with 14 points apiece, while Jakob Sigurdarson and Derrick Williams (10 points each) also scored in double-figures for the visiting Panthers.
High Point grabbed an early 10-9 advantage before BSC exploded for 21 of the next 25 points and a comfortable 30-14 lead when Rostislav Vergun nailed one of six first-half threes for the visitors. BSC trotted to the locker room with a 39-24 cushion.
HPU found itself down 42-24 at the 19:14 mark of the second half, but put together a 27-8 streak over the next 10 minutes to take the lead. Gathings brought High Point within 50-48 on a layup, and then brought the Millis Center crowd to its feet with a three-pointer with 9:51 to play to give HPU a 51-50 advantage.
Shema Mbyirukira pushed BSC back ahead with a dunk on the other end to start the visitors on a 6-0 run, capped off with a Sigurdarson layup for a 56-51 advantage at the 6:26 mark.
After High Point clawed within two points, Williams made a pair of foul shots to give BSC a slim 60-56 cushion with 4:31 to go. Following a Gathings jumper at the other end, the game went scoreless for nearly two minutes before Echenique converted a pair of foul shots to draw HPU even at 60-60 with 2:37 to play.
White stole the ball from Collins at the other end and fed Landon Quick, who laid it up and drew a foul from Sigurdarson with 2:00 to go. Quick's free throw completed the old-fashioned three-point play and pushed HPU ahead, 63-60.
Mbyirukira drained two foul shots to pull BSC within 63-62 at the 1:44 mark for what would be the final points of the game. Collins came up with a steal at the other end, but Sigurdarson missed a jumper with 50 seconds left and White grabbed the rebound for HPU.
Still, BSC had a chance to win it down the stretch when Gathings missed a pair of free throws with 17.3 seconds to play and BSC pulled down the board. Following a timeout with 7.0 seconds to play, Davis had a five-foot runner that would have won it with two seconds left, but missed. Jorsua Chambers cradled the rebound and High Point had its first-ever win over Birmingham-Southern in six tries.
High Point won the battle of the boards by a 32-30 count, and won despite being outshot at the free-throw line by a 30-percent differential (89 percent to 59 percent). Davis pulled down a game-high nine boards for the visitors.
The game was the final home regular-season contest for HPU seniors Brent Halsch and John Stonehocker, who were honored before the game as part of Senior Night festivities.
High Point finishes regular-season play with a pair of road contests, beginning Saturday night at Radford. Tip-off in the Dedmon Center is set for 7:00 pm.
