A youthful High Point University men's basketball team dropped a hard fought 65-52 decision to a veteran led Big South-leading Radford University squad on Saturday night in front of a near capacity crowd of 1,642 at the Millis Athletic Center.

With the loss, HPU slipped to 5-12 on the season including a 1-6 mark in Big South action. Radford earned their sixth consecutive Conference win improving to 9-9 overall and 6-1 in the league.

The Highlanders raced out to an early 9-4 lead before watching the Panthers battle back to knot the score at 12 behind a pair of three-pointers by Nick Barbour. The two squads traded slight leads over the remainder of the opening half with HPU holding a 28-27 advantage at the half.

Both teams struggled to find consistent offense over the first 20 minutes. Radford shot just 34 percent from the floor while High Point connected at a 38 percent clip.

The back-and-forth play continued through the first eight minutes of the second half. With the score tied at 41, the Highlanders broke things open with a 13-5 run over the next seven minutes of play. The Panthers committed four of their 13 turnovers during the span while also making just two of six shot attempts.

High Point rallied back to within five points, 56-51, with 3:24 remaining but could get no closer as Radford ended the game on a 9-1 run.

Barbour and fellow freshman David Singleton each finished with 12 points to the pace the Panthers. Singleton, one of three HPU players with a team-best eight rebounds, also dished out five assists on the night. Steadman Short and Cruz Daniels both grabbed eight boards for High Point.

Daniels also blocked four shots in the contest moving him into fifth-place on the Big South's all-time career list for blocked shots with 186.

Radford had five players finish with double-digit points led by 14 from Kenny Thomas, who ended the night with his 1,000th career point.

The Panthers conclude their current two-game home stand in the Millis Center on Tuesday night against Liberty at 7 p.m. Following the LU game, High Point begins a season-long four-game road swing at VMI on Saturday afternoon.