Box Score BOX SCORE

The High Point University men's basketball team fell into an early hole and couldn't recover, taking a 64-40 loss to Gardner-Webb on Saturday night at Porter Arena in Boiling Springs, N.C. Nick Barbour scored 17 points and Shay Shine scored 10 for the Panthers.

“We just weren't ready to play tonight,” said HPU head coach Scott Cherry. “We didn't do the things we worked on for the last two days and we weren't ready to play. I give Gardner-Webb all the credit in the world, they came out energized on Senior Night and played a great game.”

High Point finished the regular season 11-18 overall and 7-11 in the Big South while Gardner-Webb ended up 11-20 overall and 6-12 in league play. Both teams will play in the Big South Tournament starting next Tuesday.

For Gardner-Webb, Laron Buggs led all scorers with 17 points and Jon Moore scored 12. Luke Engelken grabbed a game-high seven rebounds.

Down 27, Shine hit two three pointers, then Barbour hit two three-pointers to get it to 37-22 in the first four minutes of the second half. A layup and free throw by Xavier Martin made it 39-25 before Gardner-Webb's Luke Davis hit a three. Martin drained two more free throws to make it 42-27 but the Runnin' Bulldogs stabilized and led 52-30 when Moore hit a three-pointer with under 10 minutes left in the game.

Gardner-Webb had gotten its lead back to 24 points (58-34) before a Barbour trey and a layup by Earnest Bridges got HPU's total up to 39. After a Buggs jumper, Shine hit one of two free throws to make it 60-40. The Runnin' Bulldogs put in two more baskets in the final minutes to make it a 64-40 game.

Gardner-Webb jumped out with the first 24 points of the game, including seven points from Moore, as the Panthers missed eight shots and turned the ball over nine times before Bridges hit a pair of free throws. It was 32-10 after a Luke Davis three-pointer with just under four minutes left in the half. The Runnin' Bulldogs added a fast-break layup from Moore and a trey by Bryan Burrell to make it 37-10 at the break. High Point went 3-for-22 from the floor in the first half.

High Point turned the ball over a season-high 22 times and Gardner-Webb scored 34 points off turnovers. HPU went 6-for-9 from three-point range in the second half.

The Panthers own the No. 7 seed for the Big South Tournament and will face Liberty in Lynchburg, Va., in the quarterfinals on Tuesday at 7 p.m. Gardner-Webb will face top-seed Coastal Carolina in the quarterfinals.