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The High Point University men's basketball team took an 85-74 loss to Morgan State on Wednesday night at Hill Field House in Baltimore, Md. Redshirt-sophomore John Brown led the Panthers with 26 points, including 14 free throws.

"It was a scrappy effort, we battled, but we have to eliminate our mental mistakes," said HPU head coach Scott Cherry. "We gave ourselves a chance in the last seven, eight minutes. Guarding the ball is our main issue. We've been in all these ball games, we're just hurting ourselves with silly mistakes."

Brown shot 6-for-11 from the floor and 14-for-17 from the line and added five rebounds and two blocks. Junior guard Devante Wallace scored 15 points with three treys and a career-high 12 rebounds. Freshman Anthony Lindauer scored a season-high eight points and freshman Jorge Perez-Laham had a team-high four assists.

Morgan State was led by Justin Black's 23 points and six steals. Ian Chiles scored 18 points on 6-for-9 shooting and Anthony Hubbard had 13 points, eight rebounds and three assists.

High Point fell to 3-6 while Morgan State improved to 3-7

Morgan State had gained a seven-point lead (22-15) with under nine minutes to play in the first half before the Panthers came back to take the lead. Down 24-20, HPU scored seven in a row including a three-pointer from the right side by Wallace to finish the run.

High Point still led when Lindauer hit a three-pointer from the corner that made it 32-31, but Morgan State finished the half on a 12-5 run to make it 43-36 at the break. After Lindauer hit two free throws with 30 seconds on the clock, Chiles hit a layup and Morgan State intercepted the ensuing inbounds pass, resulting in a Black layup in the closing seconds.

Morgan State maintained its lead in the second half and had a chance to pull away but the Panthers kept within striking distance. Down nine on a Hubbard layup with 15:56 on the clock, HPU got back within five (56-51) when Brown finished off a three-point play. Over the next four and a half minutes, Morgan State used a 16-4 run to grow its lead to 17 – its largest of the game.

High Point chipped it back into single digits, using a 7-0 run to take it from 75-59 to 75-66 on a dunk by Brown with just under six minutes to play, but the Panthers couldn't get any closer.

HPU shot 46.8 percent from the floor, 36.8 percent from three-point range and 82.1 percent from the line but was plagued by 19 turnovers. Morgan State shot 50.9 percent from the floor but just 58.5 percent (24-for-41) from the free-throw line.

The Panthers continue their road trip at No. 2 Syracuse on Friday at 7 p.m. in Syracuse, N.Y. It's the highest-ranked opponent the team has ever played. The game will be aired live on ESPN3.