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The High Point University men's basketball team used a 21-2 run early in the game to put away Averett University, 89-53, on Saturday night at the Millis Center. Senior guard Shay Shine scored 19 points with seven rebounds and five assists to lead the Panthers.

"This was a good game for us, we were looking for a win tonight and we got it," said HPU head coach Scott Cherry. "We weren't perfect the whole time but it was a good effort. We had a lot of guys step up. Shay had another good game with 19 points, Corey Law had another double-double, Devante Wallace had one of his best games for us. I also want to congratulate Nick Barbour for moving up to fifth all-time in scoring, that's a big accomplishment for him and he has been a great representative of this University."

Barbour scored 14 points, moving him up to fifth on HPU's all-time scoring list. A senior, he now has 1,650 in his career and overtook Danny Witt, who scored 1,648 points from 1966-70.

Freshman guard Devante Wallace totaled 18 points, a new career high, and redshirt-junior forward Corey Law supplied his fourth double-double of the season with 14 points and 12 rebounds. Junior guard Jairus Simms also scored in double-digits with 10 points and added four rebounds and four assists.

Averett had three scorers in double digits: Justin Pierce scored 14 points, Paul Porter scored 10 and Marquis Scott scored 10 points with a team-high seven rebounds.

HPU improved to 3-6 on the season and 3-2 in the Millis Center. Averett fell to 1-6.

Barbour opened the game with a trey from the corner and the Panthers took a 10-3 lead, never trailing the rest of the way. Averett got six straight points from Pierce to push the score to 11-9 with 14:12 left in the first half. The Panthers responded with a trey from Wallace that ignited a 21-9 run to bury the Cougars. Wallace led the raid with seven points and Barbour scored five on the run. HPU led by 24 at halftime, 45-21.

Averett came out strong in the second half, scoring the first five points and getting within 17 (61-44) with 10:48 to go. But the Panthers caught fire again, closing out the game with a 28-7 run. Wallace scored 11 of his 18 points and Shine nabbed half of his 18 in the second half.

High Point shot 54.5 percent (36-66) in the game, the team's highest field-goal percentage of the season. The Panthers held Averett to 37.3 percent (19-51) from the floor and 28.6 percent (6-21) from beyond the arc.

High Point has a week off before traveling to Huntington, W.Va., to take on Marshall next Saturday at 7 p.m. It will be the third meeting between the Panthers and Thundering Herd.