The High Point University men's basketball team closed the game with a 10-0 run snapping a seven-game losing skid with an impressive 64-57 road win over Charleston Southern at the CSU Fieldhouse on Monday night.
With the victory, High Point moves to 6-16 overall and 2-10 in Big South play while CSU slips to 7-14 and 2-8 after dropping their fifth consecutive conference home game (0-5 on the year).
Nick Barbour led the Panthers with 22 points including a free throw and a breakaway layup off a steal for HPU's final points. Cruz Daniels added 11 points and pulled down a team-best eight rebounds. Eugene Harris and Jourdan Morris both scored eight points each in the second half for HPU.
Joel Lamb paced the Buccaneers with 15 points including 13 in the second half and Omar Carter posted his third straight double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds for CSU. Jamarco Warren finished with five points on Monday night after blistering the Panthers for 29 points in the pairs first meeting.
"It was so great to see our guys respond positively tonight," said HPU head coach Bart Lundy. "We showed a lot of toughness down the stretch and did the things we needed to do to earn a victory. Hopefully we can build on this performance has we head home for few games."
The two squads went back and forth over the opening half of play battling through two ties and 10 lead changes. Charleston Southern grabbed an early advantage at 16-10 with just over 10 minutes remaining in the period. Nick Barbour, who scored 12 of HPU's first 19 points, then sparked a 9-2 run by the Panthers including a stretch of seven consecutive points to put High Point back in front, 19-18.
HPU and CSU traded the lead several times from that point to the end of the stanza before a layup by Giedrius Knysas with three seconds left sent the Buccaneers into the half up by one, 31-30. Barbour finished the half with 15 points including a 3-for-4 shooting performance from long range.
The Panthers raced out of the break scoring the first six points of the frame. Eugene Harris hit a jumper for his first basket of the night followed by back-to-back buckets from Cruz Daniels to put HPU up 36-31. CSU answered with the next five points to again knot the score.
Over the next four minutes the two teams traded the lead on nearly every possession as Jourdan Morris scored four straight times for HPU and Joel Lamb tallied 11 of 13 points for Charleston Southern during the stretch. CSU built a 47-42 lead with 12:07 to play on the strength of a 6-0 spurt.
HPU rallied back using a 12-3 run to move in front 54-50 with 6:58 on the clock. Harris and Jacob Iati drilled back-to-back treys to cap the scoring surge. The Bucs answered with the next seven points to regain the lead by three only to see High Point come back with back to back baskets from Barbour and David Singleton to retake the advantage for good. High Point's defense held the Bucs scoreless over the final 3:56 to secure the victory.
High Point will now play five of its next seven games at home in the Millis Athletic Center beginning on Saturday night at 7 p.m. versus Big South rival Coastal Carolina.
