Zione White scored 20 points, Danny Gathings tossed in 12 points and Issa Konaré added a career-high 11 points as High Point won its fourth-straight Big South Conference opener with a 73-56 victory over defending League champion Liberty Wednesday night in men's basketball action in the Millis Center.
The Panthers scored the first 10 points of the second half and used a 26-8 run to break things open after leading 32-30 at halftime. HPU forced Liberty into 23 turnovers and swiped 11 steals.
HPU has won four of its last five games and improved to 6-8 (1-0 Big South), while the Flames dropped to 2-10 (0-1).
Larry Blair led Liberty with a game-high 25 points, while David Dees tossed in 14 points for the Flames.
High Point jumped out to a 16-11 lead before the Flames ran off seven straight points and took an 18-16 advantage on a three-pointer by Blair with 9:23 left in the first half. Liberty led by as many as four points before Jerry Echenique put the Panthers back in front, 26-24.
The Flames hung in and tied the score at 30-30 on a layup by freshman Rell Porter with 1:21 to play before halftime. Porter then stole the ball on the other end to give LU a chance to take the lead. But White picked Dees' pocket at the top of the key, was fouled with 22.5 seconds to go and drained two foul shots to give the Panthers a 32-30 advantage at halftime.
High Point held Liberty scoreless for the first five minutes of the second half and used back-to-back three-pointers by Gathings and Konaré to close a 10-0 run which gave the Panthers their first double-digit lead of the game at 42-30.
A block by Rashad Robinson turned into a layup for Blair and pulled the Flames within eight (44-36), but they would get no closer. Five minutes later, the Panthers found themselves up 20 points thanks to a 12-2 run which culminated in an Echenique layup to make it 58-38 with 7:04 to play.
Four different Panthers (White, Gathings, Arizona Reid, Jerald Minnis) dunked in the second half en route to the 17-point victory, which came in the first meeting between the teams since the 2004 Advance Auto Parts Big South Tournament championship game (won by the Flames in Lynchburg).
The Panthers shot 39 percent from the floor to Liberty's 32 percent. Rebounds were even at 45-45.
Konaré and Gathings each pulled down seven boards for HPU, which got four assists and four steals from White. Landon Quick and Akeem Scott had three assists each.
Leo Lightbourne provided a game-high 10 rebounds and added four points for LU. Brian Woodson had nine rebounds and six assists, while Dees added eight boards.
High Point is now 6-1 all-time in Big South Conference openers.
Both teams return to action Saturday at 7:00 pm EST. High Point hosts Birmingham-Southern in a matchup of the top two Big South preseason favorites, while Liberty visits Winthrop in Rock Hill.
