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The High Point University men's basketball team cut a 23-point deficit down to eight in the second half, but Marshall finished the game on an 18-7 run en route to a 79-59 result on Saturday night at the Henderson Center in Huntington, W.Va. Senior guard Nick Barbour scored 22 points, including five three-pointers in the second half.

"We missed some opportunities in the first half but still did pretty well defensively," said HPU head coach Scott Cherry. "In the second half, we just got in too big of a hole, down 23. My guys fought back, Barbour was feeling pretty good for a while. If we could have cut their lead down to five or six it might have been a different ball game. We just got in too big of a hole against a good basketball team. You can't do that."

Barbour scored 19 of his 22 points in the second half and went 6-for-10 from three-point range (5-for-6 in the second half). Senior Shay Shine scored 14 points and junior Corey Law scored eight with a team-high nine rebounds.

Marshall's Justin Coleman scored 16 points to lead five players in double figures. Robert Goff scored 10 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and blocked three shots.

High Point led early in the game before Marshall came back to take a six-point margin at halftime. HPU led 7-2 when Xavier Martin hit a fast-break layup, his second basket in the opening minutes, and the Panthers led 14-9 when Branimir Mikulic hit a three-pointer from the top of the key. High Point had its largest lead of the first half – seven points – when Shine made an athletic play to hit a layup under the basket and Mikulic hit a free throw, making it 24-17.

Marshall began its first-half comeback when Damier Pitts hit Shaquille Johnson for an alley-oop to start a 17-2 run. That run also included two alley-oop dunks (one reverse) from Coleman. HPU's Martin finally broke the run when he hit a jumper with his toe on the arc with 2:02 left. Pitts hit a three-pointer before Shine hit a half-court shot, making it 37-31, as time ran out in the first half.

Marshall started the second half on a 23-6 run, turning three straight turnovers into baskets to finish the run and take a 58-37 lead. The Herd got its first double-digit lead of the game (43-33) when Robert Goff hit a pair of free throws with 17:33 left in regulation. The Herd got several baskets off turnovers, leading to a 61-38 lead with 10:57 left in the game.

Barbour hit four straight three-pointers in a row with just over nine minutes to play to get HPU back within 61-50. A Barbour steal led to a layup by Shine that made it 61-52.

Marshall's DeAndre Kane hit a pair of free throws before Barbour drew a three-shot foul, sinking all three to get HPU within eight (63-55) with 6:42 left. That was the closest the Panthers would get.

High Point fell to 3-7 while Marshall improved to 7-2. Marshall used its size to block seven HPU shots, a season high by a High Point opponent, and outrebound the Panthers 47-35.

The Panthers can look forward to three-straight home games starting next Wednesday when High Point University hosts Wofford at the Millis Center at 7 p.m. The game will be broadcast live on 1230 AM-WFMR and highpointpanthers.com and will have live video on the Big South Network.