Junior Arizona Reid had a game-high 25 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Panthers to a 81-74 victory in the team's Big South Conference opener on Saturday night in front of a boisterous crowd of 1,441 fans at the Millis Athletic Center.
High Point (10-5, 1-0 Big South) improved to 6-2 all-time in Big South openers and captured their fifth consecutive league home debut. HPU also extended its current home win streak to 13 games and remained undefeated (9-0) at home this year. With the loss, Radford falls to 5-11 (0-1 Big South) dropping their fifth straight game.
Reid posted his fifth double-double of the year and surpassed the 20-point mark for the eighth time. Junior Mike Jefferson added 17 points, including four three-pointers, and dished out five assists to aid the HPU cause. Fellow junior Jerald Minnis chipped in 13 points and eight rebounds and blocked three shots with freshman Eugene Harris adding 10 points.
Martell McDuffy drained four treys and scored 20 of his team-leading 22 points in the second half to pace the Highlanders. Chris Oliver finished with 18 and Amir Johnson had 10 to both reach double-figure points. Oliver, one of the league's top rebounders, was held to just four boards while Joey Lynch-Flohr led Radford with seven to give the Highs a 37-33 edge on the glass.
"This was a great college basketball game," said HPU head coach Bart Lundy, who moved into a tie for sixth on High Point's all-time coaching wins list with his 58th Panther victory. "It was important for us to get our conference season started on a positive note and I thought we got a solid team effort in this win."
High Point got out of the blocks quickly scoring the first six points of the game and holding Radford scoreless for nearly five minutes. The Highlanders finally got on the board with a basket by Kenny Thomas at 15:36 then minutes later used a 10-0 run to grab a 16-11 lead of their own.
The Panthers clawed their way back regaining the lead late in the first half and took a 30-29 lead into the halftime break.
The Highlanders gained the early momentum in the second half grabbing a four-point lead sparked by an eight-point scoring spree by McDuffy that included a pair of three-pointers and a lay-up. High Point fought back and knotted the score twice but McDuffy made a pair of free throws and his fourth trey to push RU back in front with 12:45 remaining.
The two squads kept things close for several minutes before High Point's defense stepped up and got some important stops allowing the Panthers to build a five point lead, 65-60, with 4:02 left to play. Radford rallied to cut the lead to just two with 1:43 remaining, but a Troy Bowen three-pointer at 1:21 pushed the margin back to five. The Highlanders got no closer than three the rest of the game as HPU connected on 9-of-11 free throw attempts in the closing minute to ice the game.
"We struggled at the free throw line early in the year but tonight we really stepped up an made some important ones down the stretch," added Lundy. "I was really proud to see our guys make some key shots to help us win the game. I thought we also had some great defensive stops and rebounding late in the game that were huge for us."
High Point continues Big South Conference play on Wednesday as the Panthers visit VMI for their first league road contest.
