WHEN: Friday, March 10 | 8:00 p.m. (or 30 minutes after quarterfinal No. 3)
WHERE: Vines Center | Lynchburg, Va.
RECORDS: High Point (15-14, 13-5), Presbyterian (12-17, 10-8)
SERIES RECORD: 21st meeting | High Point leads 16-4
LAST MEETING: High Point won 72-64 in Clinton, S.C. on Feb. 25, 2017
Video: ESPN3
Audio: High Point Panthers Radio Network
Live Stats: Liberty.edu/flames
Tournament Guide: HighPointPanthers.Com
Tournament Central: Liberty.edu/flames
 
HIGH POINT, N.C. – The High Point University women's basketball team will look to continue its hot streak against Presbyterian on Friday night in the Vines Center in the quarterfinals of the Big South Championship.
 
The Panthers (15-14, 13-5) finished the regular season with a flurry of victories to place in a tie for second in the standings and earn the No. 3 seed in the tournament. Meanwhile, the Blue Hose won their final two regular season games to lock down the No. 6 seed in the weekend's event.
 
Quick Hitters:
• The Panthers closed the regular season with a 74-64 overtime victory over Radford on Senior Day in the Millis Center. Despite finishing regulation with 12 points, Kaylah Keys racked up 12 of HPU's 16 overtime points to lead High Point to a win and a tie with Campbell for second in the conference standings.
 
• High Point placed in the top three in the conference standings for the 11th time in the last 15 years with only Liberty ranking in the top three more often during that span.
 
• Against Big South foes, the Purple & White are shooting .424/.370/.753 while posting a +7.8 rebounding margin.
 
• High Point is 17-17 all-time in their 17 appearances in the Big South Championship. In its tournament openers, HPU is 12-5 with eight wins in its last nine tries including three straight.
 
• As a team, the Panthers led the Big South in scoring (68.9 ppg) for the third time in DeUnna Hendrix's five seasons at the helm. In the years HPU didn't lead the league, the squad finished second (2015-16) and fourth (2012-13).
 
• HPU has won 10 of its last 11 games, which is the best stretch since winning 14 of 15 down the stretch of the 2013-14 season.
 
• Emma Bockrath has registered 175 rebounds on the year, which is the highest total by a guard in HPU's Division I era.
 
• HPU ranks 42nd in country in free throw percentage draining 75 percent of its attempts from the charity stripe. Only Presbyterian has a better percentage among Big South teams.
 
• HPU's next field goal will make it the eighth team in 18 Division I seasons to score 2,000 points - the squad's 68.9 scoring average ranks fifth during that span. Meanwhile, the Panthers are on pace to break the program's single-season three-point (.358 - .356) and free throw percentage (.750 - .749) records.
 
All-Time Series with the Presbyterian Blue Hose
The Purple & White are 16-4 in their 20 meetings with Presbyterian and have never lost to the Blue Hose outside of the Templeton Center including a 1-0 record against PC in a neutral setting.
 
Last Time They Met
The Panthers are 2-0 against the Blue Hose this season with an 87-60 victory in the Millis Center and a 72-64 overtime triumph in the Templeton Center where the team had lost the last four meetings against Presbyterian.
 
Scouting the Blue Hose
It's all about guard play for PC, which leans heavily on All-Big South Second Team selection Cortney Storey and Scholar-Athlete of the Year Janie Miles who combine for 21.0 points, 6.7 rebounds and over half of the team's assists.
 
Matchup to Watch
The fourth and final quarterfinal of the Big South Championship pits the top two three-point shooting teams in the conference against each other. In the previous two meetings, PC has hit 23-of-61 (.377) while the Panthers were more selective hitting 17-of-36 (.472). Meanwhile, HPU outrebounded the Blue Hose 101 to 50 in the two contests in 2016-17.
 
Big South Player of the Year
Emma Bockrath became the third Panther and sixth sophomore to win the Big South Player of the Year award. She joins Stacia Robertson ('14-'15) and Katie O'Dell ('05-'06) as HPU players who have earned the recognition.
 
Three-Time All-Conference
Kaylah Keys picked up her second straight All-Big South Second Team selection. The senior has been named to the all-conference team three times joining Katie O'Dell as the only Panthers to achieve that feat.
 
HPU's Swiss Army Knife
• Emma Bockrath ranked in the top-10 in the league in points (5th), field goal percentage (8th), assists (8th), steals (10th), rebounds (10th) and minutes (10th).
 
• The Dayton, Ohio product has started as a guard and a forward while leading the team in scoring nine times, in rebounds 10 times and in assists 13 times this season.
 
• Bockrath is the second player in HPU's Division I history to average 10.0 points, 6.0 rebounds and 2.0 assists in a season with Stacia Robertson being the other - Robertson achieved that feat during all three of her seasons at High Point.
 
(Re)-Bounding Up the Charts
• In 2015-16, the Purple & White averaged 35.8 rebounds per game and finished 241st in the nation. However, this season the Panthers are 48th this year with 41.2 rebounds per contest, which ranks second among Big South behind only Liberty.
 
• High Point went 12-19 last season after posting six straight winning seasons. After, the team opened the season 3-11 before going 12-3 the rest of the year to get back over .500.
 
This Squad's Tournament History
• Since DeUnna Hendrix took over at High Point University the squad is 5-4 in the league's postseason tournament including back-to-back trips to the title game in 2014 and 2015.
 
• Kaylah Keys has scored in double figures in all eight of her appearances in the tournament averaging 14.75 points per game.
 
• Including the 2014 WNIT contest at Bowling Green, Keys owns nine of the 11 double digit scoring postseason outings. Lindsey Edwards tallied 10 points in the first round against Winthrop last season and Kat Harris posted 10 in the quarterfinal loss to Radford in 2016.
 
• Keys was named to the 2014 Big South All-Tournament Team.
 
Next Up
With a win, HPU would advance to the semifinals for the 12th time in 18 tries and take on the winner of the third quarterfinal between No. 2 Campbell and No. 7 UNC Asheville on Saturday. Those squads tip at 6 p.m. on Friday right before HPU versus PC.
 
#GoHPU