For the third consecutive time this season the game was decided in the final minute of play between High Point and Coastal Carolina, but unlike the first two meetings this time HPU came away with the 59-56 victory in the quarterfinals of the 2008 Advance Auto Parts Men's Basketball Championship, Tuesday, March 4.  High Point, the No. 3 seed advances to the Semifinals for the fifth consecutive year and will play No. 2 seed Winthrop, Thursday night at 6 p.m. live on ESPNU from the Justice Center in Asheville, N.C.

High Point senior Arizona Reid grabbed an offensive rebound and made a jumper with 10 seconds to play giving the Panthers a 57-56 lead. HPU thwarted a final scoring chance by the Chanticleers with less than two seconds remaining and Reid dropped in a pair of free throws for the final margin.

With the win, High Point improves to 17-13 overall while Coastal ends the season at 13-15.

Reid finished with a game-high 20 points and 11 rebounds in recording his 20th double-double of the season. In the game, Reid became the first Big South player in league history to record 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds in a career. He also set a new single season rebounding mark with 333. Mike Jefferson added 17 points for the Panthers.

CCU senior Jack Leasure led the Chants with 18 points including four three-pointers while Anthony Breeze chipped in 10 points. Leasure finishes his career ranked fourth in the NCAA for three-pointers made with 411.

The two squads battled through 14 lead changes and six ties during the game.

HPU started quickly scoring the first seven points of the game, but Coastal Carolina slowly chipped away at the deficit and eventually knotted the score at 19 on a dunk by Matt Brennan with 6:36 left in the period. Leasure followed with a trey on the next CCU possession giving the Chants their first lead of the night. The Panthers answered with a three-pointer by Eugene Harris and a lay-up by Reid to regain the lead at 24-22.

Leasure sparked a 9-1 run for Coastal with a pair of treys giving CCU a 31-25 lead with 2:29 left in the first half but a pair of Reid baskets and an assist helped the Panthers close the gap to just two at the break, 33-31.

The second half see-sawed back and forth featuring nine lead changes. With Coastal leading 45-43, High Point rallied with an 11-2 run that included four points from Ibrahim Appiah and capped by another Harris triple to hold a 54-47 advantage with 6:35 left to play.

Coastal made a final charge outscoring High Point, 9-1, over the next six minutes of play to regain the lead 56-55 on a lay-up by Breeze with 29 seconds to play setting up the dramatic finish.

High Point Head Coach Bart Lundy:
"I thought this was a great college basketball game. I want to give Coastal a tremendous amount of credit for giving everything they had on the floor tonight. I was extremely proud of our guys and I thought our effort was unbelievable down the stretch. The difference in the game was our defensive intensity late in the second half. We made some really key defensive stops when we needed them. We are just thrilled to be moving on in the tournament."
 
Coastal Carolina Head Coach Cliff Ellis:
"This was another one of those tough fought games between the two teams this year. We laid it all out on the floor and just came up short. Give credit to High Point for their effort. This season's been a real joy for me to coach. The senior class has laid the foundation for what we want to achieve in the future."

GAME NOTES:
*CCU's Jack Leasure finishes career with 411 three-pointers made ranking him 4th all-time in NCAA history... Also ends career with 1893 points, which ranks 6th all-time in Big South history
*HPU's Arizona Reid became the first player in Big South Conference history to record 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds in a career... He becomes the 97th player in NCAA Division I history to reach that milestone... In addition, he also set a single season Big South Conference record for rebounds with 333 this year.