The High Point Panthers held the nation's top scoring team in check for much of the game as HPU posted a 109-92 victory over the VMI Keydets in their regular season finale on Saturday night at the Millis Center.
HPU (21-9, 11-3 Big South) ended the regular season with a 14-1 mark at home and also posted a new program Big South Conference win mark with their 11th victory. VMI, who had been averaging 103.0 points a game this season, dropped to 12-18 overall (5-9 Big South) after being held to their second lowest point total in league play this season.
Junior Arizona Reid closed out his bid for Big South Player of the Year honors with a career performance against VMI finishing with a career-high matching 32 points and a personal best 25 rebounds. The 25 boards sets a new Big South Conference single game record, previously held by Charleston Southern's Tony Fairley (1987) and Coastal Carolina's Moses Sonko earlier this year, and a HPU program Division I record. He finished the season with a league leading 13 double-doubles.
Fellow junior Mike Jefferson scored 20 points, including 13-of-14 from the free throw line, and freshman Eugene Harris also chipped in a career high 20 points for the Panthers. Melvin Crowder added 10 points off the bench and senior Landon Quick tallied 10 points in his final regular season home game. Jefferson also dished out nine of HPU's 18 assists on the night.
VMI's Reggie Williams, the nation's leading scorer, led the Keydets with 33 points. Senior Matt Murrer finished with 17 points and nine rebounds while Chavis Holmes added 21 points in the loss.
"I am very proud of how this group responded tonight," said HPU head coach Bart Lundy. "We played under control for most of the game and were able to handle their pressure for much of the night. I'm glad that we could send Landon (Quick) out with a victory on Senior Night because he has been a tremendous player for this program over the past four years. I thought Arizona had an unbelievable game especially on the glass. Melvin also stepped up and had one of his best games of the season. Hopefully, we can carry this momentum into tournament play on Tuesday."
The two squads kept it close over the opening minutes as HPU held a slight one-point lead, 10-9, with 15:56 on the clock. The Panthers used a 17-4 surge midway through the first half to open up some breathing room and grab their largest lead of the frame, 31-15, at the 8:25 mark.
The Keydets trimmed their deficit to single digits over the next three minutes before HPU began to slowly pull back in front down the stretch. Following a lay-up by Jefferson with 1:39 left to play in the period, VMI scored seven straight points to end the half trailing by only nine, 51-42, at the break.
Reid tallied 19 points and 14 rebounds in 15 minutes of action in the first half while Williams scored 14 points for VMI in the opening stanza.
VMI refused to quit in the second half mounting a charge midway through the second half. The Keydets used an 8-2 run capped by a Williams trey with 13:03 left to play to pull to within three points at 62-59. High Point answered with a 12-3 run of their own over the next two minutes to extend their advantage back to double digits.
High Point maintained a lead the rest of the game as VMI could only close the gap to five points with five minutes to play. The Panthers used an 8-0 surge late in the game to close things out en route to their record Big South victory.
High Point, who earned the No. 2 seed in the upcoming Big South Tournament, will host No. 7 seed Radford on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Millis Center. VMI, the No. 6 seed visits No. 3 seed Liberty on Tuesday.
