Box Score BOX SCORE

Freshman forward Du'Vaughn Maxwell led the High Point University men's basketball team with 14 points, eight rebounds and four blocks but the Panthers couldn't close the gap on Big South leader Coastal Carolina and took a 78-60 at Kimbel Arena in Conway, S.C., on Sunday afternoon. Shay Shine scored 12 points and led HPU with five assists.

"We did a really good job in the first half and had a couple of chances to take the lead going into halftime," said HPU head coach Scott Cherry. "In the second half, we came out and battled but they were able to shoot 60 percent from the floor. They're a good basketball team. We're getting some positive signs from guys like Du'Vaughn Maxwell and Georges Massoda. We just need to keep believing in what we're doing and move forward."

High Point fell to 5-7 overall and 2-2 in Big South play with the loss while Coastal Carolina improved to 12-2 overall and 3-0 in the Big South. It was Coastal Carolina's 10th-straight win.

Coastal Carolina's Desmond Holloway led all scorers with 21 points while forward Chad Gray scored 19 and led the game with 12 rebounds.

Maxwell made several athletic plays in the opening minutes, including a block on a Gray layup attempt and a tip-in in traffic that got the Panthers their first two points. The Panthers went 1-for-9 on their first 10 field-goal attempts to fall into a hole before Shine scored twice to make it 13-7. After Justin Cheek hit two free throws, Maxwell blocked another shot that led to a jumper by Tehran Cox to make it 15-11.

After the teams traded free throws, HPU freshman Georges Massoda made two great defensive plays in a row, first blocking a shot out of bounds and then deflecting a Coastal pass to Cox for a fastbreak layup that made it 17-15. Massoda scored on a short-range jumper a minute later, then grabbed a rebound that led to a tip-in by Maxwell that tied the score for the first time at 19-19. Shine drove to the hoop several minutes later to make it 27-27 before Coastal finished the first half on an 8-0 run that started with a layup from Holloway and finished with a dunk by Gray in the closing seconds.

Gray tipped in a Holloway shot to open the second half before a steal led to a Nick Barbour layup for the Panthers. HPU trailed, 41-31, before a free throw by Travis Elliott and a trey from Barbour cut CCU's lead to six. The Panthers and Chanticleers went pretty much point-for-point over the next several minutes, a Maxwell lay-in making it 52-45 with 12:21 left.

Coastal's Mike Holmes was able to get his team a 12-point lead with consecutive baskets to make it 58-46 and the Chanticleers were able to keep their lead in double-digits for the next several minutes. A Holmes free throw made it 64-52 with 8:35 remaining before Maxwell hit a layup for the Panthers on the ensuing possession. Coastal's lead grew to 16 (72-56) when Holmes hit a layup with 4:35 remaining.

The Panthers kept pressing in the final minutes. Martin hit Corey Law for an alley-oop and Maxwell scored from the paint to cut it to 72-60, but Coastal came back with five straight points to make it 77-60 after that. The Chanticleers would tack on one more free throw to make the final 77-60.

The Panthers play Wake Forest at the Lawrence Joel Coliseum in Winston-Salem, N.C., on Wednesday at 7 p.m. The Panthers resume their Big South schedule at Radford on Saturday at 7 p.m.