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The High Point University men's basketball team cut a 32-point deficit to 14 late in the second half but couldn't get any closer in an 85-66 loss to Radford on Tuesday night at the Dedmon Center in Radford, Va. HPU senior Nick Barbour led all scorers with 33 points (30 in the second half).

"We're going to find a way to play hard for the whole game like we were before the last two games," said HPU head coach Scott Cherry. "Before that I thought we were playing well and improving. We'll get this thing fixed. Radford has been playing hard and losing some close games. They outplayed us and they deserved to win tonight."

High Point fell to 7-11 overall and 3-5 in Big South games. After a string of close losses, Radford posted its first Big South win, improving to 4-16 overall and 1-7 in conference games.

Barbour's 30 second-half points were a career high for a half and he shot 10-for-11 from the floor and 6-for-7 from behind the arc in the period. He was HPU's only double-digit scorer. As a team, High Point shot 18.2 percent (4-for-22) in the first half and 61.3 percent (19-for-31) in the second half. The Panthers struggled on the boards without forward Corey Law, who was injured.

Radford was led by freshman guard Javonte Green, who scored 24 points with a game-high 10 rebounds. Freshman point guard R.J. Price scored 17 points and Tolga Cerrah and Kyle Noreen each scored 10 for the Highlanders.

Down 32, Barbour hit the last bucket of the first half and hit a trey to start the second period and the Panthers were finally able to get their offense rolling. Barbour scored HPU's first eight points of the second half and, after his second trey, Justin Cheek and Jairus Simms both hit layups to make it 50-27. Those were part of a 21-9 run and HPU went on another 10-5 run shortly after, getting Radford's lead down to 14 when Barbour hit a pair of free throws.

High Point was within 14 three more times, the last when Branimir Mikulic hit a three-pointer to make it 73-59. Radford countered with a three-point  play by Green with 2:35 remaining.

Radford scored on its first four possessions and High Point never led in the game. The Highlanders shot 15-for-23 from the floor and made nine three-pointers in the first half to take a 45-15 lead at the break. The Panthers went just 4-for-21 from the floor in the first half. HPU senior Shay Shine scored eight of the Panthers' 15 points.

The Panthers have two more games this week starting with VMI on Thursday in Lexington, Va. The Panthers then host Liberty on Saturday at the Millis Center. Both games start at 7 p.m.