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The High Point University men's basketball team had the score tied on a Shay Shine layup with under a minute remaining, but Appalachian State's Andre Williamson hit a free throw with 5.2 seconds on the clock to lift the Mountaineers to an 82-81 win before a standing-room-only crowd of 1,805 on Saturday night at the Millis Center. Shine tied a career high with 27 points.

"Our guys really fought tonight. We knew it was going to be a shootout, we knew it was going to be a high scoring game," said HPU head coach Scott Cherry. "Our guys were down 10 a couple times in the second half and they fought back to tie it up with 30 seconds to go and gave us a chance to win. We just needed one more stop and, I know if we had gotten that we would have came down and scored. I give App. State a lot of credit, they played a great game and our guys fought all the way until the end."

High Point dropped to 11-16 overall and Appalachian State improved to 13-14 overall. HPU is 7-9 in the Big South and has its final two games of the regular season next Thursday and Saturday.

Shine was a perfect 5-for-5 from three-point range and had a game-high five assists. Junior Nick Barbour added 18 points for the Panthers and seniors Earnest Bridges and Tehran Cox scored 14 points and 13 points, respectively, in their final game at the Millis Center. It was also the final home game for senior David Campbell, who led HPU with five rebounds to go along with two points and three assists.

Appalachian State guard Donald Sims led all scorers with 28 points. Sims hit six three-pointers for the Mountaineers. Appalachian State was 9-for-12 from three-point range for the game. Petey Hausley added 17 points for Appalachian State. Both teams shot over 50 percent.

Down 10 points (79-69) with 3:27 to go, HPU made a furious comeback. After two Cox free throws and a Xavier Martin jumper, Shine added two three-pointers, the second of which cut the lead to two (81-79) with 1:06 left. Cox forced Sims into a five second violation to give HPU possession. Shine answered the call again, driving to the lane and hitting the game-tying layup with 34 seconds left. Appalachian State's Andre Williamson was fouled with five seconds remaining and hit the second of two free throws to give the Mountaineers the 82-81 lead.

The Panthers got the ball back and Barbour ran the length of the floor, getting a shot off but it came up short as time ran out.

HPU started the game on fire, hitting its first seven shots from the field to take a 15-8 lead with 16:03 left in the first half. High Point shot 58.9 percent from the field for the game. Appalachian State came back and Sims his team in front, 25-24, with a three-pointer with 9:00 left in the half. The Mountaineers pushed their lead to 38-32 with 4:10 left until halftime, but Shine scored five quick points to make it 38-37. Appalachian State had a 45-41 lead at halftime.

High Point came out of the second half gate with a 10-2 run, capped by a Shine three-pointer to give HPU a 51-47 lead. Appalachian State tied the game (61-61) on Omar Carter's jump shot with 12:20 left. The Mountaineers took lead on Sims's fifth three-pointer of the game, which made it 67-65 with 9:12 left. Appalachian State pushed the lead into double-digits which set up the frantic finish.

High Point returns to Big South action on Thursday night at 7 p.m. when it travels to take on UNC Asheville in Asheville, N.C. The Panthers defeated UNC Asheville, 76-73, in the teams' first meeting on Dec. 4 at the Millis Center.