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In her final regular-season home game senior Ashlee' Samuels scored a career-high 16 points and pulled down seven rebounds to lead the High Point University women's basketball team to a 72-61 win over Presbyterian on Monday night in the Millis Center.

“I thought we played good basketball tonight,” head coach Tooey Loy said. “This is three games in a row now that we have gotten back to playing the basketball we were playing a month ago. We need to keep playing this way as we head into the conference tournament and if we do we have as good a chance as anybody.”

Samuels scored 10 of her points and grabbed five of her rebounds in the second half, shooting 5-6 in the period. Her previous career high was 15 points which she scored twice, including once earlier this season against Mercer. The senior also tied her career high with four blocks in the contest. Samuels and fellow senior Whitney Tarver were honored by the team in a ceremony before the game.

“It was great that Ashlee' could get a career-high in points on senior night and that we could get Whitney back into the game,” Loy said. “They have both been huge parts of this program and we are going to miss them both.”

After falling behind 6-2 to start the game, the Panthers used an 11-2 run to jump ahead five, 13-8, with a a little under 12 minutes left in the first half. Junior Frances Fields scored five points and High Point forced six turnovers during the run to take the lead.

Three minutes later, with High Point leading, 19-14, Fields scored four-straight points with a layup on a fast break and a rebound and put back to go up nine, 23-14. PC managed to pull within six at 25-19, but a floater on the left baseline by junior LaTeisha Dean and a three from the right elbow by junior Jurica Hargraves put HPU up 11, 30-19 with 5:37 left until halftime.

The team's traded baskets until a three by junior Mackenzie Maier and a backcourt steal and layup by freshman Erin Reynolds pushed the High Point lead to 14, 37-23, with 2:30 left in the half.

The Panthers still led by 14, 41-27, with less than five seconds left in the half when Samuels took a pass from Dean on the low block and hit a fadeaway over the Blue Hose defender to send HPU into the locker room up, 43-27.

Fields scored 13 points in the first half to lead all scorers for High Point while Mariah Pietrowski led PC with eight points and seven rebounds. The HPU defense forced 14 turnovers in the first half, scoring 15 points off those turnovers.

Presbyterian scored the first basket of the second half right out of the break, but the Panthers responded with 11-straight points to go up 25, 54-29 with 14:36 left in the game. High Point's defense continued to hound PC, holding the Blue Hose to 0-8 shooting after the first made basket and forcing four more turnovers.

After Presbyterian used a 12-2 run to pull back within 15 at 56-41, Hargraves came off the bench and hit a runner from the left side to stall the Blue Hose run and HPU rattled off eight-straight points to retake a 23-point lead, 64-41, with seven minutes left in the contest.

The Blue Hose continued to fight back, pulling to within 11 in the final minute of play, but the Panthers' lead was too large to overcome as HPU pulled out the 72-61 win.

Fields finished with 14 points in the game and Hargraves chipped in with 13 for the Panthers. The HPU defense forced 22 turnovers in the game with 10 steals, scoring 22 points off those turnovers. Maier blocked three shots in the contest, giving her 85 on the season and moving her past her own HPU Division I single-season blocks record of 84 that she set last season.

The Panthers improve to 16-11 overall and 9-5 in the Big South with the win.

Kristen Stewart finished with a team-best 15 points for the Blue Hose who fall to 5-21 overall and 3-9 in the Big South with the loss. PC next returns home to play Radford on Saturday, Feb. 27.

High Point will play its final two regular season games on the road with its first coming at Winthrop on Saturday, Feb. 27. HPU will look to improve to 2-0 against the Eagles this season after winning 69-60 in the two teams' first meeting. Maier scored 22 points in that game to pace the Panthers.