Danny Gathings hit a pair of free throws with 5.0 seconds left to lift High Point to a huge 58-57 victory over Radford Saturday night at the Dedmon Center. The win clinches a first-round home game for the Panthers in the upcoming Big South Tournament, and gives HPU its second-straight season sweep of the Highlanders.
High Point improves to 16-10, 9-6 in Big South play, while Radford falls to 12-13 (7-7 in the Conference).
Radford had come back from a 14-point second-half deficit to take a 57-56 lead on a pair of foul shots by Whit Holcomb-Faye with 15.1 seconds to go before the dramatic ending.
Zione White scored 17 of his team-high 18 points in the first half for HPU, while Jorsua Chambers (10 points) also reached double-figures).
Holcomb-Faye led RU with 19 points, but his 25-footer as the buzzer sounded that would have won it fell short and the Panthers celebrated their seventh road win of the season (a record since the school joined the NCAA Division I ranks in 1998).
Radford scored four points in the game's opening 20 seconds, but the Panthers went on a 13-0 run that featured two three-point baskets by White to claim a 13-4 lead following a Jerry Echenique free throw at the 13:30 mark.
The Panthers led by as many as 16 points in the first half (at 33-17 following a Landon Quick jump shot). Radford got within nine points on Olumuyiwa Popoola's jumper befor Brent Halsch drained a trey in the waning seconds of the half to send the Panthers to intermission up 38-26.
But High Point went cold from the field after halftime, shooting just 26 percent from the floor. Radford used a 13-5 run out of the break to pull within 43-39 on an Aaron Gill layup at the 10:30 mark of the second half, and following two more of Chambers' 10 points, the Highlanders tied things up with back-to-back threes from Brandon Jeffers and Chris Goodin for a 45-45 deadlock with 8:22 left.
HPU answered with two buckets in a span of 12 seconds, as Quick drained a jumper, got a steal and fed Chambers for a 49-45 lead.
With 2:49 left, Chambers made two free throws to push the HPU cushion to 54-51. But the Highlanders stormed back as Gill scored a layup and Holcomb-Faye nailed a 15-footer with 48.8 seconds left to give Radford its first lead since the beginning of the game -- 55-54.
Quick was fouled at the other end and calmly tossed in a pair of free throws to seesaw the Panthers back on top, 56-55, before Holcomb-Faye took the lead back with his foul shots with 15.1 seconds left. Quick raced downcourt and called timeout with 5.0 seconds to play.
The Panthers scrambled to get free on the inbounds play, but Gill knocked down Gathings and was called for his fifth foul. Gathings, who had already lifted HPU to last-second wins this season over Western Carolina and Charleston Southern, made both tosses.
Radford inbounded to Holcomb-Faye, who was triple-teamed at midcourt and was able to manage a 25-footer which fell short as the buzzer sounded.
The Highlanders won the rebounding battle by a 39-36 count, but shot just 3-of-19 from three-point range and 12-of-23 from the charity stripe.
Although Gathings was held to just six points (tying his season-low), he came through when it counted to carry the Panthers through stormy waters.
"It was a tough go tonight, but everybody else stepped up around me," Gathings said. "We came together and pulled out a win that we really needed."
With a win Wednesday night in its regular season finale (at VMI), High Point would own the second seed in the 2004 Big South Tournament (played exclusively on the home court of the higher seed Mar. 2-6).
"We're in a great position right now," HPU head coach Bart Lundy said. "We're the only team still fighting for a spot in our league that controls its own destiny. Nobody else can say that, and that's our focus."
