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The High Point University women's basketball team outscored Liberty 12-3 over the final six minutes of regulation to force overtime where the Panthers pulled out a 73-69 road win on Saturday night in Lynchburg, Va. Junior Erin Reynolds led HPU with 21 points including six in OT.

“I thought we came out with great energy tonight,” head coach Jennifer Hoover said. “We talked a lot heading into tonight that we needed to expect to win this game which is a different mentality. We kept grinding it out on the defensive end and with the rebounding. Erin Reynolds is a kid that wants to do whatever you ask of her and late in the contest tonight the game really came to her.”

Reynolds scored 16 of her 21 points in the final 6:26 of regulation and overtime including the game-tying three pointer with 34 seconds left in the second half. Reynolds also grabbed six rebounds and led HPU with six assists.

“It means a lot to get this win over Liberty,” Reynolds said. “They have beaten us four times on our home floor in my first two years so to come up here and pick up the win means a lot. Still we have another game on Monday. We can't celebrate this win too much because we play a very good Radford team in a couple days.”

Three other players finished in double figures for High Point with senior Shamia Brown scoring 13, sophomore Tayler Tremblay scoring 11 and junior Laura Whitt scoring 10. Sophomore Cheyenne Parker grabbed a career-high 18 rebounds on the night tying the HPU Div. I single-game record set by Amber Manuel in 2007.

Avery Warley and Devon Brown each scored 19 points to lead the Flames in scoring. Warley also grabbed 16 rebounds to finish with a double-double.

The win was High Point's first over Liberty since 2009 and its first in the Vines Center since 2007. The Panthers improve to 8-6 overall and a perfect 3-0 in the Big South with the win while Liberty falls to 6-7 overall and 1-1 in the Big South.

Liberty led by nine at 60-51 on a layup by Warley with 6:26 remaining before High Point charged back with a 9-3 run to pull to within three with 1:05 remaining. Reynolds scored seven of the nine HPU points including two free throws to make it a three-point game.

Trailing by three with less than a minute remaining, High Point harassed the Flames into a shot-clock violation giving the Panthers the ball down three with 34 seconds left in the contest. With the shot clock winding down, Reynolds again came through for the Panthers banking in a three from the top of the key to tie the game at 63-63. Devon Brown heaved desperation three at the buzzer with two defenders on her which clanged off the backboard, sending the game into OT.

Neither team could find a bucket in the overtime period until a jumper by Brown from the foul line to give HPU a 65-63 lead with a little over two minutes remaining in the extra period. After an LU miss on the other end, Parker connected with a put-back layup off an offensive board to give High Point its largest lead of the game to that point at 67-63.

A free throw by Warley made it a one-possession game at 67-64, but Reynolds was too much for the Flames down the stretch, scoring HPU's final six points including a 4-4 showing at the line to seal the four-point win.

High Point jumped out to an early 5-2 lead in the game as Tremblay connected on a three from the right elbow on the Panthers first possession and Shamia Brown converted two free throws. An old-fashioned three-point play by the Flames' Danika Dale tied the game and started a 12-3 run by Liberty to make the score 14-8 in favor of LU.

High Point twice got back within one and trailed by just two at 24-22 after two free throws by Shamia Brown with 6:16 remaining in the half, but Devon Brown and Warley combined to score eight-straight points for the Flames to open the lead to 10 at 32-22 with 4:16 left forcing an HPU timeout.

Down 10 with just under three minutes left, High Point closed the half on a 7-0 run to pull to within three at 34-31 at the break.  Brown connected for her first field goal of the game on a jumper in the paint to start the run for the Panthers. Parker had three points for the Panthers, connecting on a layup off a dish from Reynolds and a free throw after being fouled following a steal in the backcourt.

 Brown and Tremblay led HPU at the half with seven points apiece while Parker finished with 11 rebounds, four blocks and two steals in the opening 20 minutes. Devon Brown led all scorers with 11 points at the break for the Flames.

Liberty connected on four of its first five shots in the second half to reopen its lead to nine at 42-33 with 16:29 left in the game. Trailing by eight, 47-35, with 13:35 remaining, High Point rattled off six-straight points to close to within two at 47-45. Tremblay found Puckett in the left corner for a three pointer and Reynolds scored three-straight points on a pull-up jumper on the fast break and a free throw after being fouled following a steal in the backcourt.

High Point held Liberty to just 1-8 shooting in the final six minutes of regulation and 2-11 shooting in overtime. The Panthers forced 24 turnovers and finished with 13 steals including three by both Reynolds and Whitt.

HPU will attempt to improve to 4-0 in the Big South for the first time since 2008-09 when the team travels to Radford, Va., on Monday to face the Radford Highlanders at 7 p.m. Radford swept the season series with the Panthers last season, winning both games in overtime.