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The High Point University's men's basketball team held off a late North Carolina Central rally for a 82-74 non-conference win, their fourth win in a row, on Monday night at the Millis Center. Junior guard Nick Barbour led the Panthers with 19 points and HPU outrebounded the Eagles, 39-22.

"The guys are really doing the things we practice and getting better every day," said HPU head coach Scott Cherry. "They're making stops and guys, driving and finding teammates for open looks and sharing the basketball. We had 22 assists which is a season high. For 40 minutes, that might have been our best basketball game of the year. In the first half, we were tremendous offensively and defensively. To hold them to 23 points at the half was tremendous effort by our team since they have two guys who can really score the basketball."

High Point improved to 10-13 overall while North Carolina Central dropped to 11-11 overall. HPU is 6-7 in the Big South.

Junior Shay Shine added 18 points for HPU, including a perfect 10-for-10 from the free throw line. As a team, High Point shot 21-for-23 from the charity stripe. Sophomore guard Jairus Simms added a season-high 10 points and dished out five assists. David Campbell had a career high seven assists along with his five points and four rebounds.

North Carolina Central was led by guards Landon Clement and C.J. Wilkerson, who each scored 24 points.

High Point jumped out to a quick start, using an 18-2 run early in the game to take the lead for good. The Panthers used stingy defense, got two three-pointers from Barbour and a pair of buckets from Travis Elliott to take a 21-7 lead. Another run featured a Barbour three and a Corey Law fast-break dunk to put the Panthers ahead 28-10. They took a 38-23 lead into intermission.

The Eagles came out of halftime on fire as Clement hit two threes and Wilkerson hit one to cut HPU's lead down to 42-38 with 16:07 left. High Point pushed back with a 11-3 run to get the lead back to double-digits (53-41). Simms started the run, slashing to the hoop for a layup and the foul. Barbour and Shine each added three-pointers during the run.

North Carolina Central made one last run, cutting High Point's lead to 66-63 with 4:04 left behind a Clement three-pointer. The Panthers finally took control of the game for good when Simms drove in the lane and found a wide open Barbour in the corner. Barbour calmly knocked down the triple. to make it 73-65 with 1:43 left. From there the Panthers iced the game from the free-throw line. The closest NC Central would get is five.

High Point returns to Big South action on Thursday night at 7 p.m. when they travel to face VMI in Lexington, Va. The Panthers fell to VMI in their first meeting, 97-91.