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The High Point University women's basketball team struggled against an aggressive Virginia defense as the Panthers fell to the Cavaliers, 67-41, at John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville, Va., on Wednesday night. Senior Shamia Brown scored a team-high 11 points and had seven rebounds in the loss.

“I think we need to take out some positive things from this game, especially the start,” head coach Jennifer Hoover said. “We were competitive and didn't play scared. The difference was when Jazmin Pitts came into the game. Her physicality was something we didn't have an answer for. We got hammered on the boards and we can't do that if we are going to compete.”

High Point finished the game shooting just 29.1 percent from the field (16-55). Sophomore Cheyenne Parker joined Brown in double figures for HPU with 11 points to go along with a team-high nine rebounds despite playing only 13 minutes due to foul trouble. Ariana Moorer led all scorers with 14 points in the game for Virginia.

The loss was the first under new head coach Jennifer Hoover and drops High Point to 1-1 on the season. Virginia improves to 3-0 with the win.

HPU jumped out to an early 5-0 lead in the opening minutes as junior Erin Reynolds connected on a three pointer from the top of the key and Parker scored with jumper in the paint after pulling down an offensive rebound.

High Point still led by five, 9-4, with 13:39 left in the first half before the Cavaliers managed to rattle of nine-straight points to take a 13-9 lead and force an HPU timeout.  Jazmin Pitts came off the bench to score five of the nine points for UVA on two layups and a free throw.

Virginia's aggressive zone defense continued to give HPU problems following the timeout as UVA pushed its run to 26-6 to take a 30-15 lead into halftime. HPU's only three scores in the run came on a jumper from the corner by sophomore Taylor Wimbish and two layups by Brown. The Panthers struggled shooting the ball, going 3-20 from the field (15 percent) during the Cavalier run.

Parker led HPU at the half with six points and six rebounds. Brown chipped in with four points and four rebounds for High Point. Pitts led all scorers for Virginia at the half with seven points.

The Cavaliers continued to pull away in the second half, extending its lead to as large as 31, 65-34, with 3:22 left in the contest.  Back-to-back fast-break layups by Brown spurred a 7-2 run by HPU to end game making the final score 67-41.

With its two-game swing through Virginia done, High Point will next return home to the Millis Center for its home opener against Davidson on Friday, Nov. 18. HPU leads the all-time series against the Wildcats with a 3-2 record in five meetings. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m.