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The High Point University women's basketball team got off to a great start under first-year head coach Jennifer Hoover, getting an 82-67 win over Virginia Commonwealth University in the season-opener on Friday in Richmond, Va. Senior Shamia Brown had a dominating performance with a career-high 29 points, including 18 in the final 13 minutes.

"The kids came out and played with a lot of heart tonight," said Hoover. "We talk a lot about working hard every day and tonight our team came out, faced some adversity early and came out of it well. Before the game we said one of the keys was rebounding. I thought if we outrebounded them we would have a chance to win and we did a great job with that."

Brown shot 13-for-17 from the floor and added six rebounds and three steals. Sophomore forward Cheyenne Parker had a double-double with 15 points and 13 rebounds, junior guard Erin Reynolds scored 19 points with seven boards and sophomore Tayler Tremblay scored 10 points with nine assists.

"Shamia brings a lot to the team," Hoover added. "She works so hard every day so it was great to see her come out and get into a flow in the second half. They couldn't stop her. Our guards did a great job seeing when Shamia and Cheyenne were going to work and did a great job feeding that."

High Point shot 67 percent from the floor in the second half and 55 percent for the game. The Panthers outrebounded VCU 42-35 and held the Colonial Athletic Association's preseason No. 2 team to 40.0 percent shooting. Guard Andrea Barbour scored 18 points to lead the Rams and forward Courtney Hurt scored 16 points with a team-best eight rebounds.

High Point ran away in the final four minutes, scoring the final 14 points of the game. VCU's Hurt hit two free throws to cut High Point's lead to 68-67 with 4:22 to go before Brown completed a three-point play to stretch it to four.

Just 30 seconds later, Brown hit a free throw and missed her second, but Parker was there to grab the rebound and lay it in. On the ensuing play, Parker blocked VCU's Robyn Parks's shot, leading to another layup by Brown. HPU led by nine points with 2:37 to go and kept VCU off the board the rest of the way.

The Panthers had led by seven points (60-53) with 10 minutes to go before VCU scored eight straight, capped by a Barbour layup, to take the lead. High Point countered with a Brown layup to take a 62-61 lead and held it the rest of the way.

In the first half, the Panthers took an 8-3 lead when three consecutive steals led to baskets by Reynolds and Brown. They led 14-10 when Laura Whitt hit a trey with 13:22 to go in the first half before VCU went on a 19-6 run. The Rams kept their lead around 10 points until the closing minutes in the first half.

The Panthers seized momentum to close out the first half with a three-point play by Brown, a pair of free throws by Tremblay and another three-pointer from Whitt. Barbour helped VCU's cause with a layup as time ran out and the Rams led 38-35 at the break.

The Panthers were picked to finish second in the Big South Preseason Poll after finishing 16-15 overall and 9-7 in Big South play last season. VCU went 19-12 in 2010-11 and both Barbour and Hurt were preseason All-CAA selections. HPU's victory marked the first time the Panthers beat a Div. I opponent in their season opener since 2004-05, when they opened with a win over Campbell.

High Point University is back in action next Wednesday when the Panthers take on Virginia in Charlottesville, Va. Hoover previously was an assistant coach at Virginia for four seasons. The game begins at 7 p.m.