Eugene Harris' three-point shot at the buzzer just rimmed out as UNC Asheville escaped with a 61-59 victory over the High Point University men's basketball team at the Justice Center on Tuesday night.

For HPU (5-11, 1-5 Big South) it was the squad's third straight final possession game of the season. UNCA (8-9, 4-2) used a closing 13-3 run to improve to 6-1 at home this year.

High Point freshman Nick Barbour finished with 19 points including four three-pointers to pace the Panther offense, while sophomore Jourdan Morris matched a career best with 13 points including 11 in the second half. David Singleton recorded a career best 9 assists in the game for HPU.

Reid Augst scored 20 points to lead the Bulldogs and hit a pair of free throws with 23 seconds remaining to give UNCA the lead for good. Matt Dickey added 15 points for Asheville and John Williams finished with 14.

"We battled all night," said HPU head coach Bart Lundy. "We just gotta figure out a way to win one of these games. We are playing hard enough to get better results. We are getting there as a team, we just have to stay at it and keep working. I thought we got a great look on the last possession, but the shot just didn't fall."

After a closely contested opening few minutes, High Point used a 12-2 run to surge in front 16-8 with 11:45 left in the first half. The Panthers got points from five players in the surge including five by Nick Barbour. HPU pushed its lead to double-digits at 21-11 with just over eight minutes remaining.

UNC Asheville rallied back behind an 11-3 run of their own to close their deficit to four points, 21-17. The Bulldogs were aided by several HPU miscues during their run and benefitted from Panther point guard David Singleton sitting on the bench with three first half fouls. A Barbour triple ended the UNCA surge, but the Bulldogs continued to battle and pulled to within two points at the break, 29-27.

Barbour finished with 13 first half points including the final eight of the frame for HPU. Reid Augst tallied 10 points to pace the Asheville offense. High Point shot 50 percent (11-22) from the field in the opening stanza while forcing UNCA into a 33.3 percent performance (8-24).

The two squads kept things close out of the halftime break. Asheville used a 7-0 spurt to take their first lead 40-37 since a 6-5 edge early in the first half. The Panthers clawed back and notched a 9-0 run of their own to grab a 55-48 advantage with just under three minutes to play.

The Bulldogs answered and closed the deficit to one on a three-pointer from JP Primm with two minute left. On the next possession, UNCA got a run out but Barbour hustled back and blocked a dunk attempt by Augst to keep the Panthers up by one. Asheville took the lead on a putback dunk by Williams only to see HPU regain the lead on a layup by Morris with 32 seconds left. Augst then drew a foul to earn the game-winning free throw attempts.

The Panthers return to High Point for a brief two-game home stand in the Millis Center beginning on Saturday night against Radford at 7 p.m. HPU concludes the home stay next Tuesday versus Liberty