Mark Wilson tossed in 21 points (including 19 in the second half), but VMI withstood a High Point comeback and held off the Panthers, 69-61, Saturday in the Big South regular-season finale for both teams at Cameron Hall.
Landon Quick scored a season-high 14 points for the Panthers (12-17, 7-9 Big South), who will travel to UNC Asheville on Tuesday for a first-round game in the 2005 Advance Auto Parts Big South Tournament.
Wilson swiped a team-high eight rebounds for HPU, which got eight points, six rebounds and two assists from Arizona Reid and seven points from Zione White.
Reggie Williams scored a team-high 19 points and Matt Coward provided 11 points and six assists for the Keydets, who finish their season at 9-18 (3-13 in the League). Tim Allmond collected eight points and five blocks in his final collegiate game.
VMI made 21 of its 24 free-throw attempts (87.5 percent) and shot 45.7 percent from the field. HPU shot 36.4 percent from the floor and held a slim 35-33 edge on the boards.
Williams scored nine early points, including a three-pointer with 13:22 left in the opening half to give the Keydets a 14-6 lead. VMI led by as many as 12 points in the first half, marking the largest first-half deficit for the Panthers in a Big South game this season.
But HPU closed the half on a 9-2 run which featured five points by Quick (including a free throw with 2.3 seconds left) to get within 28-23 at halftime. Quick tied his previous season-high of 10 points in the first 20 minutes.
High Point made just six of its first 25 shots from the field before intermission and was unable to take advantage of 11 VMI turnovers. The Panthers did convert four of their final six first-half field goal attempts, and held the Keydets scorless for the final 3:06 of the first stanza.
The Panthers pulled within two points on two different occasions early in the second half, but VMI had an answer every time and eventually worked the lead back to eight points at 53-45 on a layup by Matt Murrer with 8:39 to go.
But HPU used a 9-1 run to take its only lead of the game when Wilson buried a trey from the left corner for a 57-56 HPU advantage with 4:24 to play.
VMI then got a Fred Robinson layup at the other end to re-take the lead for good, 58-57, with 3:53 left. High Point pulled within one point at 60-59 following a Wilson layup at the 2:41 mark and then at 62-61 after two free throws by Issa Konaré with 1:36 to play, but could not get over the hump.
The Keydets made eight of their final nine free throws to ice the victory, while the Panthers missed their final six shots from the field.
The winner of the HPU/UNCA contest Tuesday in the Justice Center will face the survivor of the game between No. 7-seeded Charleston Southern and No. 2 seed Liberty in a semifinal to be played Thursday at 7:00 pm on the home court of the highest remaining seed.
Other first-round contests Tuesday include eighth-seeded Coastal Carolina at No. 1 seed Winthrop (7:00 pm EST) and No. 5 seed Radford at No. 4-seeded Birmingham-Southern (8:00 pm EST).
