Box Score BOX SCORE

The High Point University women's basketball team jumped out to an early 17-3 lead over No. 5-seed Charleston Southern and never looked back, leading wire-to-wire and picking up a 77-49 win over the Buccaneers on Friday in the Millis Center to advance on to the Big South semifinals.

The fourth-seeded Panthers improve to 16-14 on the season with the win over CSU. Charleston Southern finishes its 2010-11 campaign with a 14-16 record.

“This win was a lot like our game against UNC Asheville on Sunday,” head coach Tooey Loy said. It all starts with our defense. When we get stops we are fast enough and have enough shooters that it is tough to match up with us on the fly. We have also made some great decisions on offense, not forcing a shot and instead making the extra pass for an open look. This time of year you just have to keep advancing.”

Four players scored in double figures for the HPU, led by senior Mackenzie Maier who shot 5-6 from the floor and 4-4 from behind the arc, finishing with a team-best 14 points to go along with seven rebounds and a team-high five assists. Senior LaTeisha Dean and junior Shamia Brown each finished with 13 points with Brown adding a team-best 10 rebounds for a double-double.

Kelsey Wasmer led all scorers in her final collegiate contest with 15 points for the Buccaneers. Big South Player of the Year Katie Tull finished with 12 points on 5-20 shooting. The Big South's career leader in three pointers shot just 2-11 from behind the arc.

HPU shot 55.8 percent from the field for the game and 68.8 percent from three, going 11-16 from behind the arc. High Point's 11 three pointers fell just three short of the Big South single-game tournament record and give the Panthers 29 three pointers in their past two games.

The Panthers hot shooting from their regular season finale continued into the beginning of the game against the Buccaneers as HPU connected on its first six shots, including four three pointers to take a 17-3 lead with 15:38 left in the opening half. Maier hit three shots from behind the arc in the early surge to help High Point take the early lead.

A jumper by Helen Terry pulled CSU to within nine at 23-14 with 10:37 remaining, but High Point immediately came back with a 19-3 run to push its advantage to 25, 42-17, with just under three minutes remaining. Brown scored nine of HPU's 19 in the run while Dean added seven.

The Buccaneers scored four of the last five points of the half, but still entered halftime down by 22, 43-21. Brown, Dean and Maier all finished with 11 points leading HPU at the half while Tull and Wasmer led Charleston Southern with seven each.

High Point shot 57.1 percent (16-28) from the field in the first half, including a 70 percent average (7-10) from behind the arc.

HPU continued to shoot the ball well in the second half, going 13-24 (54.2 percent) from the field and 4-6 (66.7 percent) from behind the arc. The Panthers built their lead to as large as 33, at 71-38 with 5:01 left in the game before ultimately winning by 28, 77-49. 

Senior Jurica Hargraves scored 10 points in the contest to tie the High Point Division I career scoring record with 1,323 points. She ties Katie O'Dell who played at HPU from 2002-06.

High Point advances on to the semifinals of the Big South Women's Basketball Championship for the third-straight season and will face No. 1-seed Liberty on Saturday at 4 p.m., in the Millis Center. The Panthers dropped both games to the Flames this season, dropping a 68-60 decision at home and a 58-57 decision in Lynchburg.