Liberty rallied from a nine-point second-half deficit to pull out an 84-81 win over High Point Tuesday night in Big South Conference men's basketball action in the Vines Center.
The Panthers dip to 10-11 (5-3 in Big South play), while the Flames improve to 8-12 (6-3). High Point's three Conference losses have come by a total of seven points.
Akeem Scott led HPU with a career-high 21 points. Danny Gathings tallied 15 points and Jerry Echenique added 12 points.
HPU is 7-4 in its last 11 games, with the four losses by a grand total of eight points.
Liberty, which moved past the Panthers into second place in the Big South with the win, got a double-double from Leo Lightbourne (24 points, 12 boards). All five LU starters scored in double-figures, including David Dees and Larry Blair (16 points apiece).
High Point jumped out to a 12-4 lead early after Mark Wilson drained a jumper and then Arizona Reid stepped in front of an inbounds pass, scored a layup and was fouled for an old-fashioned three-point play at the 11:51 mark.
But Liberty came back to force the first of seven first-half ties at 16-16 on a layup by Lightbourne. HPU built a seven-point cushion (29-22) before the Flames used a 7-0 run to pull even at 29-29. Liberty took its first lead at 36-34 with 2:56 left before halftime on a Dees jumper.
The Panthers got a huge spark in the final minutes of the opening stanza from Scott, who broke a 38-38 tie with three free throws, a steal, a layup and another foul shot to give HPU a 44-38 cushion with 42.1 seconds left before intermission. High Point led 44-40 at the half.
Scott picked up where he left off after halftime, scoring the Panthers' first seven points of the final period, including a three-pointer to give HPU a 51-46 lead with 16:51 to go.
Liberty rallied behind Lightbourne, Dees and Brian Woodson (13 points, eight assists, six rebounds) to surge ahead 59-58 on a layup by Blair with 12:12 left. LU led 61-60 before the Panthers scored 11 of the next 14 points for their biggest lead at 72-63 following a layup by Titus Byrd with 7:55 to play.
The Flames stormed back with an 8-0 run to pull within 72-71 on a Lightbourne runner with 5:37 to go. High Point scored five of the next seven points for a 77-73 advantage on a Gathings free throw with 4:10 left before the Flames scored six unanswered points to re-take a 79-77 lead when a trailing Blair tipped a missed shot in at the 2:30 mark.
Scott brought the Panthers even with a layup in traffic with 1:32 to play, but Lightbourne scored at the other end for an 81-79 LU edge with 1:02 left. After a High Point turnover, Woodson was fouled and tacked on a free throw for an 82-79 lead with 40.5 seconds to go.
Scott answered at the other end with a driving layup to pull HPU within 82-81 with 11.1 seconds left. Woodson nailed a pair of foul shots with 6.5 seconds left for a three-point cushion. The Panthers inbounded the ball, drove the length of the court and got Gathings a shot to tie from the top of the key, but it rimmed out with one second left and the Flames had their 15th-straight home win over a Big South opponent.
The Flames won despite missing all eight of their three-point attempts. Liberty limited the Panthers to just 34 percent shooting from the field and held a 52-47 edge on the boards. The physical contest featured a combined 50 fouls and 75 free throw attempts.
Reid and Wilson each pulled down eight rebounds for the Panthers, who got six assists from Byrd and four from Scott.
The game was the opener of a four-game stretch in seven days for the Panthers, which includes Saturday's visit to UNC Asheville (4:30 pm) and a rescheduled game at home against Winthrop next Tuesday, Jan. 8 (7:00 pm).
