Box Score BOX SCORE

The High Point University men's basketball team was within a point late in the game but Liberty pulled away in the closing minutes, handing HPU a 65-54 loss on Saturday night at the Vines Center in Lynchburg, Va. Junior guard Nick Barbour led all scorers with 21 points.

“We hit baskets in the first half that we didn't hit in the second,” said HPU head coach Scott Cherry. “We didn't make stops when we needed them late, we made some defensive mistakes and turned the ball over. We needed some big baskets that we didn't get.”

High Point fell to 10-15 overall and 6-9 in the Big South while Liberty improved to 19-8 overall and 13-2 in the league.

Behind Barbour's 21-point effort, Shay Shine scored 13 for the Panthers. Freshman guard Justin Cheek scored six points and grabbed six rebounds.

Three Liberty players scored in double-digits: Jesse Sanders and Evan Gordan both scored 16 and David Minaya scored 13 points. Sanders was also the game's high rebounder with 11 boards. Liberty outrebounded HPU, 42-26, and grabbed 17 off the offensive glass.

Liberty led early and a Tehran Cox jumper cut the lead to two (13-11) before Liberty scored the next seven points. That run included two fastbreak layups by the Flames' Gordon. Cox scored the next basket. Cheek got a steal and a dunk that made it 20-16 and a second-chance layup by Cheek made it 23-18 in favor of Liberty with just over three minutes left in the first half. Liberty's Minaya scored to make it 25-18, but the Panthers scored the last five points of the half and were down just three (25-23) at the intermission.

High Point took its first lead of the game just after halftime when Travis Elliott hit a layup, the Panthers got the ball back and Du'Vaughn Maxwell scored to make it 26-25. A Barbour trey made it 30-27 in favor of HPU. Liberty came back to take a 32-30 lead and the Panthers thought they tied it back up when Barbour went to the hole, but he was called for an offensive foul. Liberty scored the next five points (a 10-0 run) before Shine hit a shot for HPU. A two-and-one by Barbour got HPU back within two (37-35).

A bucket by HPU's Cheek got the Panthers within one (43-42) with under eight minutes remaining. However, Liberty was able to match each of HPU's surges and led 55-46 when Sanders put back the rebound of a Gordon free throw. Shine ended Liberty's 16-5 run with a trey to make it 59-50 and matched a Gordon layup with one of his own to make it 61-52 with under two minutes to go. Liberty hit four free throws interspersed by a Barbour layup to close out the game.

High Point hosts a pair of home games next week. The Panthers take on Winthrop on Tuesday and Appalachian State on Saturday. Both games start at 7 p.m.