Box Score BOX SCORE

Junior guard Nick Barbour scored 32 points but was the only Panther in double figures as the High Point University men's basketball team took a 76-62 loss to UNC Asheville on Thursday night at the Justice Center in Asheville, N.C. Asheville had three players with 18 points and went 18-for-19 from the line in the second half.

“We gave them those free-throw opportunities,” said HPU head coach Scott Cherry. “We had breakdowns on defense and we made some mistakes on offense that put them in transition. We started the game well, Nick and Shay Shine had good looks. Georges Massoda gave us good minutes off the bench. It was just that breakdown in the second half when we forced some things and made careless mistakes.”

High Point fell to 11-17 overall and 7-10 in the Big South while UNC Asheville improved to 15-13 overall and 10-7 in league play. The Panthers are locked into the No. 7 seed for the Big South Tournament and will face No. 2 Liberty on the road next Tuesday. HPU finishes the regular season Saturday at Gardner-Webb.

Asheville's Matt Dickey, J.P. Primm and Jaron Lane each scored 18 points, with 20 of Dickey and Primm's combined 38 coming at the free throw line. The Bulldogs went 30-for-34 from the line, including 18-for-19 in the second half.

Behind Barbour, Shay Shine scored nine points for the Panthers while senior guard David Campbell led the team in rebounding (six) and assists (four).

Barbour hit High Point's first three baskets – two treys and a jumper in the paint. A Georges Massoda putback after the first official timeout made it 9-8 in favor of HPU and Barbour added a layup right after to make it 11-8. Later in the first half, a two-and-one by Earnest Bridges made it 22-19 in favor of the Panthers. The Panthers' lead grew to six (27-21) when Shine hit a second-chance layup, the Panthers' largest lead of the first half.

After Shine's shot, Asheville's Lane hit two baskets to cut HPU's lead to two. After a Travis Elliott shot bounced in, Asheville's J.P. Primm hit all three free throws on a three-shot foul and Matt Dickey hit two free throws to give the Bulldogs their first lead since the opening minutes. Dickey hit another to make it 31-29 in favor of Asheville at halftime.

The Panthers came out of the break with two three-pointers from Shine to retake the lead before the Bulldogs hit the next three baskets, including a Dickey trey, to make it 38-35 in favor of the Bulldogs. Asheville had taken a 42-39 lead before Barbour scored five points on a floater in the paint, then a two-and-one that made it 44-42 Panthers. Massoda scored on another putback to give the Panthers a four-point lead before and eight-point Asheville spurt, including six from Lane, put the Bulldogs back in front for good.

A Barbour layup with six minutes remaining got HPU within four points (57-53), but Asheville pulled away and built its lead to double-digits for most of the final four minutes.

Down 13, Barbour hit two free throws and Campbell stole an inbounds pass and dished to Barbour, who drained a three to cut it to 70-62 with 1:01 left. The Panthers couldn't get any closer as Dickey hit four free throws and Lane hit a layup in the last minute, making it a 76-62 final.

The Panthers play their final regular season game on Saturday at 7 p.m. when they take on Gardner-Webb in Boiling Springs, N.C. High Point topped Gardner-Webb, 66-64, in the teams' first meeting on Dec. 2 at the Millis Center.