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The High Point University men's basketball team cut a 15-point deficit down to one in the second half but couldn't finish the comeback, taking a 55-52 loss to Coastal Carolina on Saturday night at the Millis Center. Junior guard Shay Shine led HPU with 15 points, including 13 in the second half.

"Our guys fought, they've done it all year. We got an outstanding defensive effort from our guys, but we just couldn't buy buckets tonight," said HPU head coach Scott Cherry. "If you told me before the game that we were going to hold Coastal Carolina to 55 points, I would have thought for sure we would win. We just have to get some rest and get ready for Charleston Southern."

Senior guard Nick Barbour was held to just a point in the first half before coming back with 13 in the second half. He went 0-for-5 from three-point range, breaking a streak of 29 games with a three-pointer. Redshirt-junior forward Corey Law scored 11 points with seven rebounds for the Panthers.

Coastal Carolina was led by Chris Gradnigo, who scored 19 points on 8-for-15 shooting off the bench. Forward Sam McLaurin had nine points and 10 rebounds. High Point forced 17 turnovers but the Chanticleers outrebounded the Panthers, 39-26.

High Point fell to 4-8 overall and 0-2 in the Big South while Coastal Carolina improved to 10-3 and 3-0 in conference play.

Coastal Carolina held an 11-point lead at halftime and extended it to 15 (36-21), before the Panthers heated up with 14 unanswered points. Barbour drew a three-shot foul and hit them all before Shine scored seven straight points. His first was a trey from the corner as the shot clock expired before a layup and a jumper out by the arc. Barbour then hit a long jumper and, after several possessions, he hit another jumper that rolled around the rim to get the Panthers within a point (36-35).

The Panthers were still within a point at 42-41 before Coastal Carolina point guard Kierre Greenwood hit a pair of free throws and Danny Nieman hit a three-pointer. Gradnigo hit a jumper after a Shine miss, extending Coastal's lead back to eight (49-41).

With 1:54 remaining, Gradnigo hit a jumper to get Coastal back out front by six before sophomore guard Xavier Martin finished off a three-point play to get High Point back within three (53-50) with just under a minute to go. The Panthers then forced a shot-clock violation to get the ball back with 23.0 seconds on the clock, but Shine was called for traveling and Coastal got the ball back with 11.4 seconds left.

In the closing seconds, Greenwood hit a pair of free throws before Barbour charged in for a layup, making it 55-52. Shine fouled Coastal's Anthony Raffa, who missed the front end of a one-and-one. The Panthers called timeout and had two seconds to get a shot off, but heave from near half court went wide right.

The game started off as a defensive battle with the two teams combining to hit just 10 of their first 33 shots from the floor. The Panthers led 11-10 and 15-13 – both on baskets by Shine – but Coastal Carolina finished the first half on a 17-4 run.

High Point University is back in action on Monday when the Panthers host Charleston Southern at the Millis Center at 7 p.m. It's the second half of a double-header following the women's basketball team's game against Gardner-Webb at 4 p.m.