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The High Point University men's basketball team used a 21-0 run in the middle of the game and held off a late Charleston Southern surge to get an 88-78 victory on Monday night at the Millis Center. Senior guards Nick Barbour and Shay Shine led HPU with 24 and 22 points, respectively.

"That was a great win for us," said HPU head coach Scott Cherry. "Charleston Southern was 3-0 in the league coming in, averaging over 80 points a game. They're very talented offensively. Our guys did a great job defensively. We were tremendous in the first half. We came out in the second half and I liked the first five minutes. Then they came back and started breaking down our defense a little bit but I'm really pleased with our guys."

Behind Barbour and Shine, redshirt-junior forward Corey Law notched his fourth double-double of the season with 10 points and 10 rebounds and sophomore Xavier Martin scored 12 points. Barbour went off for 16 points in the second half and is averaging 16.3 points in the second halves of the last five games.

Charleston Southern guard Saah Nimley led his team with 18 points (16 in the second half) and senior forward Kelvin Martin had 12 points and 12 assists. Jeremy Sexton (17 points) and Sheldon Strickland (13) also scored in double-figures for the Buccaneers. Sexton scored 13 points in the second half to help the Bucs' surge.

High Point improved to 5-8 overall and 1-2 in the Big South while Charleston Southern fell to 9-5 and 3-1 in league play.

High Point made all seven of its three-point attempts in the first half en route to a 37-24 lead at the break. Shine and Branimir Mikulic hit treys in the beginning, although the teams combined to hit just 7-of-24 shots from the field in the first eight minutes. It heated up thereafter, the teams combining to shoot 48-for-88 (54.5 percent) from the floor the rest of the way.

The Panthers led 12-8 on a Law basket before Cedrick Bowen hit a jumper and Sexton hit a three, giving Charleston Southern a 13-12 lead. The Panthers then scored the next seven points and led the rest of the period. A Justin Cheek three-pointer made it 19-13 and the Panthers went up, 24-17, when Devante Wallace hit a three from the left side. Barbour scored seven points in a row – two three-pointers and two free throws – and Jairus Simms put back his own rebound to give HPU a 9-0 run and a 13-point lead going into halftime.

The Panthers came out gunning in the second half, a Barbour steal leading to a fast-break layup by Xavier Martin to start it off. High Point got a trey from Shine, a pair of free throws from Barbour and a pull-up jumper by Martin to complete its 21-0 run with a 46-24 lead. HPU held the Buccaneers scoreless for 5:56.

Charleston Southern battled back as the second half wore on, using separate runs of 17-6 and 15-5 to get within eight (70-62) with 3:18 remaining. The Panthers had extended their lead back to 18 (65-47) between the runs when Martin and Shine hit consecutive layups.

With under three minutes to go, Charleston Southern cut HPU's lead to seven twice, but Shine followed with a pair of free throws for HPU after both instances. In the last minute, Sexton hit two three-pointers and had High Point's lead down to 82-77 with 34 seconds left, but the Panthers hit all eight of their free throws within that span to hang on for the victory.

The Panthers are back in action with two road games later this week. The Panthers take on Presbyterian College in Clinton, S.C., on Thursday and play Gardner-Webb in Boiling Springs, N.C., on Saturday. Both games begin at 7 p.m.