The High Point University men's basketball team suffered their third consecutive heartbreaking loss in the closing seconds after dropping a 73-72 loss at Towson on Saturday afternoon.

The Panthers, who slipped to 14-13 overall, trailed by 11 points at halftime before mounting a furious comeback that included shooting 60 percent from the field in the second half. The Tigers (11-16) escaped with the victory when C.C. Williams connected on a pair of free throws with just 0:03.7 left on the clock.

Arizona Reid paced High Point in the game finishing with 23 points, including 17 in the first half. Reid also had five rebounds and five assists. Sophomore Cruz Daniels scored a career best 18 points with 12 coming in the second half. Daniels, who went 8-for-8 from the floor, pulled down a team-leading nine rebounds. Gene Harris drilled six treys in the contest to also tally 18 points.

HPU senior Mike Jefferson became the 88th player in Big South history and the 27th High Point player to score 1,000 career points with his second three-pointer of the game. Jefferson finished the game with 10 points to give him 1,005 for his career.

Williams led a trio of double-digit Tiger scorers with 19 points followed by 16 from Jonathan Pease and 15 for Junior Hairston.

Towson raced out of the gate quickly taking a 12-6 lead through the first five minutes of play. HPU pulled within one with five straight points before the Tigers scored the next nine points for a 21-11 lead at 11:09. A 10-0 surge by the Panthers sparked by three-pointers from Jefferson and Harris knotted the score at 21.

The Tigers, who shot 58 percent from the floor in the first half, finished with a flurry capped by a trey by Tim Crossin at the buzzer to post a 43-32 halftime lead. Towson made 7-of-14 three-pointers on their way to season home first half point total. The Panthers were solid on offense as well in the opening stanza hitting 52 percent.

High Point seized a tie at 47 at the 15:03 mark after outscoring Towson 15-2 out of the break. Daniels and Harris traded turns scoring with dunks and treys to get the Panthers back into the game. HPU earned their first lead at 52-50 on a jumper by Reid at the 13:44 mark.

The Panthers held the lead for much of the rest of the half building a lead to as many as seven points, 64-57, with just under eight minutes remaining. The Tigers chipped away at the HPU advantage over the closing minutes closing to within two at 70-68 with 1:30 left.

Jefferson hit a pair of free throws with a minute on the clock to put High Point back in front by four but a Hairston triple with 54 ticks left but the Panther lead to one. An HPU turnover with 0:23 remaining gave the ball back to Towson with a chance for the win.

High Point played strong defense on the Tigers final possession forcing the Towson to call a timeout with three seconds left. The Panthers were whistled for a holding foul on the inbounds attempt sending Williams to the line for the game winners. Reid got a shot off from midcourt and freshman Dave Campbell had his follow-up rebound putback deflect out at the buzzer for the Panthers.

For the game, HPU shot 56 percent from the field compared to 53 percent for Towson. The Panthers out-rebounded TU, 29-19, but committed five more turnovers and were out-shot from the free throw line 19-8.

HPU will close the regular season with a pair of key Big South Conference games including their regular season home finale on Wednesday against Radford at 7 p.m.