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The High Point University men's basketball team led 62-60 with under three minutes remaining but couldn't match shots with the Big Ten's Purdue at the end and took a 67-65 loss on Monday night in West Lafayette, Ind. Senior Nick Barbour led the Panthers with 17 points and senior Shay Shine scored 14, including a three-pointer that got HPU within two at the end.

"I really wanted this one for our kids," said HPU head coach Scott Cherry. "We had a game plan we worked on for one day, came in and our guys gave a great effort in a difficult environment with this crowd. The way the kids played, I really wanted this win for them."

After Shine's three-pointer with 27 seconds left, Purdue All-America candidate Robbie Hummel missed two free throws. HPU sophomore Travis Elliott grabbed the rebound of the second attempt with 15 seconds to go, giving the Panthers a chance to win. Shine passed the ball to Barbour, who put up a three-point attempt but his shot went off the rim in the closing seconds.

"I'll live with Nick taking that shot," said Cherry. "He's a great playmaker for us and he had a good look – not a great look – but a good look and gave us a chance to win. We'll build on this and hope to win the conference, win the conference tournament and play in the NCAA Tournament."

Purdue scored in spurts in the second half but never got its lead to more than six points in a game with 10 lead changes. Despite being outsized, High Point outrebounded Purdue, 31-30. HPU junior Corey Law played just 20 minutes due to foul trouble but grabbed a game-high eight boards.

The Boilermakers made 13 three-pointers, including eight by the game's high scorer, Ryne Smith. His only other basket was a jumper out near the three-point line. Purdue had three double-digit scorers: Smith (26), Hummel (18) and Anthony Johnson (13). The Boilermakers went just 6-for-19 (32 percent) from the free-throw line.

Along with his 17 points, Barbour grabbed five rebounds and Shine had four.  They each hit three three-pointers. Junior point guard Jairus Simms scored 10 points, nearly all on jumpers at key points in the game. Junior Branimir Mikulic hit a three-pointer on his first shot attempt as a Panther and went 6-for-6 from the free throw line (nine points).

High Point had come back from a six-point deficit and tied it 43-43 with under 10 minutes to play when Shine hit two free throws. Purdue's Smith hit consecutive treys to put the Boilermakers back on top by six and HPU had to battle back. It took several minutes but a three-point play by Barbour and a trey from Shine tied it back up. Simms followed Shine with a jumper to give HPU a 59-57 lead, its first since the first half.

In three consecutive possessions after HPU took the lead, Smith hit a trey for Purdue, Shine hit one for High Point and Hummel hit one to put Purdue back up 63-62. Purdue's lead grew to five (67-62) before Shine's three with under 30 seconds to play. That set up the final series in which Hummel missed two from the charity stripe and Barbour's game-ending three-point attempt missed.

"They have a great team with great shooters and we knew that going in," said Cherry. "We were going to live and die with our zone and hope they missed a few shots. We gave ourselves a chance at the end but sometimes it doesn't work out."

The game evened High Point's record at 1-1 while Purdue improved to 2-0.

High Point is back in action this Friday when it travels to Orlando, Fla., to play Central Florida of Conference USA. It's the first-ever matchup between the two schools. The game begins at 7 p.m.