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The High Point University men's basketball team was within four points in the final minute and had a chance to make it a one-possession game, but took an 84-78 loss to Liberty on Saturday night in the Millis Center. Senior guard Nick Barbour led HPU with 33 points and moved up to No. 3 all-time in scoring at High Point.

"This was a tough game, it's not an excuse but our guys were worn down from having three games in the past five days," said HPU head coach Scott Cherry. "My guys fought, but give Liberty credit, they came in here and won the game. I'm happy we can get back to practice this week and work on what we need to do as a team and not just prepare for the next game."

Barbour's 33 points gave him 1,891 points in his career. He passed Brett Speight, who scored 1,877 from 1993-97. Barbour shot 12-for-17 from the floor, 3-for-5 from three-point range and 6-for-6 from the line in the game.

Senior guard Shay Shine came away with his second double-double, scoring 17 points and adding 10 rebounds. Sophomore Xavier Martin contributed 11 points for the Panthers and tied his career high with seven assists. Sophomore Travis Elliott scored a career-high 10 points and had six rebounds.

Liberty's Jesse Sanders came away with his fourth career triple-double, scoring 14 points with 13 assists and 10 rebounds. Three Liberty players contributed 15 points each: Antwan Burrus, John Caleb Sanders and David Minaya.

High Point fell to 7-13 overall and 3-7 in the Big South, while Liberty improved to 7-14 overall and 2-7 in the Big South.

Following an official timeout with 3:21 remaining in the game, HPU showed a renewed sense of energy. Barbour immediately knocked down two free throws, bringing the game within 10 points (69-59).

Elliott then made a clutch tip-in dunk, making it 69-61. Following a Devante Wallace steal, Barbour took it to the hole for another two points. Down seven just 13 seconds later, Martin stole the ball and handed the ball off to Shine, who made an easy jumper cutting the lead to five points.

Liberty responded with five free throws to get back to a 10-point gap with under a minute remaining. The final 40 seconds were dominated by free throws and Liberty was able to ice the game, hitting 11 of their last 13 attempts, despite five points a piece from Barbour and Martin in the last minute.

The Flames were able to get out to a 13-point lead just over 10 minutes into the game before the Panthers chipped it back down to single digits. With 8:50 remaining in the first, Branimir Mikulic got the High Point offense started with a three-pointer. Barbour followed with a pair of treys, which brought the game to six points (27-21).

Going into the half, Barbour made two layups to bring the game to four points (38-34) before Liberty's John Caleb Sanders hit a long-distance three to make it 41-34 at the break.

The Panthers started the second half on an 11-4 run to get the game within a point (46-45), but never led.

High Point is back in action on Thursday night when the Panthers take on UNC Asheville in Asheville, N.C. When the two teams met on Jan. 14, the Panthers used a 33-6 rally to bring a 28-point deficit down to one, but the Bulldogs were able to pull out an 86-79 result.