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The High Point University men's basketball team cut a 28-point deficit to one point but never led in the second half of an 86-79 loss to UNC Asheville on Saturday at the Millis Center. Senior guard Nick Barbour led HPU on the night with 33 points, including 19 in the second half.

"We fought back and that's a sign of a great basketball team," said HPU head coach Scott Cherry. "I'm proud of my team for what they did in the second half but we need to play better for longer stretches of time. We were down five or six in the first half and let them get their lead up to 28 points. We've got to come focused every time and play with the energy we had during that run."

Barbour tied his season high for three-pointers going 7-for-10 while also shooting 10-16 from the floor and 6-7 for the line. Senior guard Shay Shine scored 15 points and added six assists and two rebounds. Junior forward Corey Law contributed 14 points, 12 of which came in the second half.

Six UNC Asheville players walked away with double-digit points, led by Jeremy Atkinson's 19. Matt Dickey and J.P. Primm both scored 16 with Chris Stevenson scoring 13. Quinard Jackson and Jaron Lane contributed with 11 points each.

High Point fell to 7-10 overall and 3-4 in the Big South while UNC Asheville improved to 12-6 overall and 7-0 in league play.

With the Panthers down by 28 (65-37) and just over 11 minutes left in regulation, Law restarted the Panther offense with a classic slam off a rebound. Barbour quickly scored five points of his own, his first points of the second half. That was the first two points of a 33-6 run by High Point.

A Landon Harris steal led to another slam by Law, narrowing Asheville's lead to 19 points (65-46). The Bulldogs went on to score three points on two HPU fouls, however High Point's offense did not stall. Barbour and Law combined for an additional nine points over the next minute, bringing the Bulldog lead down to 11 points with 6:52 remaining.

A trey from the corner by Xavier Martin with 3:22 on the clock brought the game to one point (71-70), the closest the Panthers would get. UNC Asheville's Dickey and Lane would expand the Bulldogs' lead to five points over the next minute with a pair of free throws by Dickey and a layup by Lane. Asheville's lead increased to nine in the last minute before the 86-79 final.

Barbour hit a three-pointer from corner to open the game and the Panthers led, 11-9, when Justin Cheek hit a three-pointer trey from way downtown with 15:10 left in the first half. UNC Asheville closed the first half on a 10-2 run, leading by 18 (49-31) at the break when Jackson hit a buzzer-beating trey.

The Bulldogs shot 68.0 percent in the first half and 62.5 percent for the game.

The Panthers play three games next week starting with Radford on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in Radford, Va. The Panthers then play VMI on the road on Thursday before returning home against Liberty on Saturday.