Junior forward Amber Manuel dropped in a career-high 18 points to lead the High Point University women's basketball team past Charleston Southern, 63-51 on Monday in the CSU Field House.

Manuel also had a career-high 13 rebounds for the Panthers (17-10, 10-3 Big South) to combine for her third double-double of the season. Joining Manuel in double-figures was Candyce Sellars with 12 and Katie Ralls with 10.

For the Buccaneers (10-18, 2-11 Big South) Keena Wicker led with 19 points despite playing limited minutes due to foul trouble. Pam Tolbert had 17.

High Point came out firing to start the game and took an eight point lead at 14:39 with a lay-up from Sellars. The Bucs went on an 8-3 run over the next six minutes to cut the lead to three, 15-12, when Tolbert connected from outside. HPU rallied to close out the half with a 15-1 run and take a 30-13 lead into the break.

Coming out of the break, the Panthers continued the run, connecting on threes from Leslie Cook and Ralls on back-to-back trips down the court to take a 21 point lead. High Point controlled the next six minutes, going on an 11-4 run to take their largest lead of the game, 47-19 at 13:46 when Ralls nailed another three. The Bucs kept pressing, but their run came too late as the final score is as close as CSU would come.

"Tonight was the best game that we have played in about two weeks," said HPU head coach Tooey Loy. "Our team had great intensity and really played together. This is a great time of the season to start playing great basketball."

High Point pulled down 41 rebounds to CSU's 34. The Panthers caused 18 turnovers and only gave up the ball 11 times.

The Panthers will be back in action on Saturday, March 3 when they host Winthrop in the regular season finale. It will be senior night for the Panthers. Time is set for 7 p.m. in the Millis Center.