WHEN: Friday, Nov. 9, 2018 | 7 p.m.
WHERE: High Point, N.C. | Millis Center (1,750)
RECORDS: High Point (0-0), North Carolina Central (0-0)
SERIES RECORD: 5th meeting, HPU leads, 4-0
LAST MEETING: Jan. 5, 2008 | HPU 57, NCC 40
LIVE STATS: Click Here
AUDIO: High Point Panther Radio Network
VIDEO: ESPN+
 
HIGH POINT, N.C. – The High Point University women's basketball team opens the 2018-19 season Friday evening (Nov. 9) against N.C. Central in the Millis Center. Tip-off is set for 8 p.m.
 
The Panthers are coming off a 17-14 campaign in the 2017-18 season. They finished fourth in the Big South. 
 
PAW PRINTS
• The Panthers are 9-10 in season openers in the Division I era and 5-1 in season openers under head coach DeUnna Hendrix.
 
• High Point was picked second out of 11 teams in the Big South preseason poll. Radford was chosen to win the league collecting nine of 11 votes, with HPU taking the other two votes.
 
• The Purple & White return five letter winners and four players who started 30 or more games last season, including seniors Emma Bockrath (31 games), Shea Morgan (31 games) and Lindsey Edwards and junior Camryn Brown (30 games).
 
• The Panthers welcome six new players in 2018-19, including senior Bria Gibson, junior Miya Bull and freshmen Skyler Curran, Mikaela Johnson, Jenson Edwards and Mya Grimes. In addition, senior Ambryia Davis is eligible to play after sitting out last season due to an injury.
 
• Bockrath was named Big South Preseason Player of the Year. She led the Panthers and ranked in the league's Top 10 in points (5^th – 14.1), rebounds (7^th – 6.6) field goal percentage (6^th – 43.2) and steals (1^st – 2.7).
 
• Morgan was named to the Preseason All-Big South Second Team for the first time in her career. 
 
• High Point is 103-84 under head coach DeUnna Hendrix in six seasons, including a 54-27 record in the Millis Center.
 
HISTORY vs. N.C. CENTRAL
This will be the fifth meeting all-time between the two programs, with the Panthers leading the series, 4-0. The last time the two teams met was in the 2007-08 season with the Purple & White taking a 57-40 victory.  This will open the 2018-19 season for both teams.
 
A LOOK AT THE EAGLES (9-21, 7-9 MEAC in 2017-18)
North Carolina Central comes into the season after finishing 2017-18 with a 9-21 record. The Eagles were 3-14 on the road last season. The Eagles return three starters and one important reserve from last season. Their top-scorer senior Rodneysha Martin returns after averaging 12.8 points last season. Junior Paulina Afriyie returns as the leading rebounder at 7.9 rebounds. NCCU also returns sophomore Kieche White (9.7 ppg.) and senior Caira Benton (6.4 ppg.).
 
DEUNNA HENDRIX vs. N.C. CENTRAL AND MEAC
HPU Head Coach DeUnna Hendrix is 2-0 against MEAC teams, with both wins coming against Norfolk State. Hendrix has never faced N.C. Central.
 
NEXT UP
The Panthers will host Mars Hill Wednesday, Nov. 14. Tip-off at the Millis Center is set for 7 p.m.
 
2018-19 HIGH POIN UNIVERSITY WOMEN'S BASKETBALL SEASON PREVIEW
 
The High Point University women's basketball team embarks on the 2018-19 campaign with a roster mixed with experienced players and newcomers. They are all brimming with excitement for the challenge this season presents.
           
The Panthers are returning three of the top four scorers and four of the five starters from the 2017-18 season. High Point is also returning the Big South Player of the Year from the 2016-17 season, the 2017-18 Preseason Big South Player of the Year and the 2018-19 Preseason Big South Player of the Year in Emma Bockrath. This group of experienced players is looking to lead the Panthers back to the top of the Big South, after finishing fourth last season.
           
"This group has been pretty special," head coach DeUnna Hendrix said. "We have a different mix of kids who have played a lot of minutes for two or three years and eight new kids. There is no in between right now, but the way they have received each other has been unreal. Our leadership makes my job a lot easier because they get to things before I even can. I am probably the most excited I've been in a very, very long time. I have a senior class that is going to be pretty hard to beat."
           
High Point finished the 2017-18 season fourth in the Big South and lost to No. 1 seed and eventual Big South Tournament Champions Liberty in the conference tournament. The team has a bad taste in its mouth after this finish and feels as though it left something on the table at the end of the season.
           
"If I wasn't expecting first place, I probably shouldn't go to practice," Hendrix explained. "We feel like we left a championship on the table last year. I really thought that we had enough pieces to get it done last year, but right now our upperclassmen are taking a lot of pride in attempting to get back to that level."
           
The senior and junior classes will be looked at to lead the newcomers on this season's quest. The voice is not expected to come from just one player, but all five seniors and three juniors.
           
"These kids are high character," Hendrix said. "Our seniors and our upperclassmen as a whole, our junior class, they are of high character. Everything is important to them. If you look at their academics, it's extremely high. They just hold themselves to a higher standard than even I could. They are doing just about everything on and off the court, before our coaching staff even knows what is going on."
 
GUARDS
           
High Point expects seniors Emma Bockrath and Lindsey Edwards and junior Camryn Brown to step up as leaders in the scoring and assist columns. Bockrath is the returning leading scorer for the Panthers at 13.7 points per game, while Brown added 9.4 points per game and Edwards averaged 7.8. Brown will also be relied on to distribute the ball as she is the top returner in assists averaging 3.5 a game last season.
           
"Cam is a floor general," Hendrix said. "She directs. She guides. She understands the game. She is a coach on the floor. She will score if you let her, but she will distribute if you let her distribute. She will do anything you ask her to do."
           
Hendrix expects all three to be distributors and scorers this season.
           
"We have guards that can score," Hendrix said. "Between Emma, Lindsey and Camryn, they are all capable scoring guards, but I also want them to be distributors in transition. We are trying to play fast, and they have to be good decision makers, so we are concentrating a lot on that."
           
Bockrath, the Preseason Big South Player of the Year, will not only be looked to for scoring, but rebounding as well. She was the top rebounder for the Panthers last season, and Hendrix expects that to continue into this season. 
           
"We want to get everything out of Emma," Hendrix said. "She's a stat filler in every aspect. I'm not asking Emma to lead by herself. She's not going to be the sole voice we're listening to. I want Emma to just go play. She's going to get steals. She's going to get rebounds. She's going to score. I didn't know that she could become more versatile, but she has."
           
Edwards is expected to play a bigger role this season. The senior from Perry Hall, Md. Averaged 7.8 points and 4.0 assists per game last season, but has taken a larger role as a leader for the team this season.
           
"Lindsey just walks different now," Hendrix said. "She's confident. She knows what's going on. She is a senior that is going to be really hard to beat. Right now she is probably our most tenacious defender. She is out running everyone in transition, and she's going to be better in the half court than she's ever been. Lindsey will probably be our most improved player, as far as numbers."
           
When these three are not on the floor together, Hendrix and staff expect freshman Skyler Curran to fill the role.
           
"Skyler Curran can shoot the ball," Hendrix said. "She will be another scoring guard for us."
 
POSTS
           
In the paint, there will be a mix of returners and newcomers for High Point. Shea Morgan will be the focal point for the Panthers down low. She was named Preseason Big South Second Team and will look to build off her 9.5 points per game and 5.6 rebounds per game from last season.
           
"I want Shea to become dominant," Hendrix said. "I think Shea has been stuck as the glue player for us, and she very much still is our glue player. She makes everything around her work, but she understands how to score now. She understands that passing isn't the first option. She is a hard matchup for anybody because she is just so smart. Her IQ is so high. I'm expecting Shea to become a dominant player. Somebody that is on every teams scouting report right underneath Emma to where they question whether to take Emma away or Shea away."
           
Junior Olivia VanSlooten will also play a big role in the paint as a returner.
           
"Olivia is going to one thing for sure which is work really, really hard," Hendrix explained. "Hopefully that puts her in position to get rebounds. I think her timing and her hands have gotten better. I expect her to be a better rebounder for us this year. She has become a paint protector defensively too."
           
Transfers senior Bria Gibson and junior Miya Bull will look to fill roles left empty by the four departing seniors from last season.
           
Gibson is coming in after spending the last three seasons at VCU where she averaged 5.8 points and 6.1 rebounds per game for the Rams.
           
"Bria Gibson is going to play a huge part of what we do this season," Hendrix explained. "She's a blue-collar kid that is going to get every rebound and work really, really hard to make things happen. She also gives us an inside presence that we haven't had in a long time."
 
Bull comes in as a junior college transfer from Iowa Western Community College.
 
"Miya Bull is just a freak athlete," Hendrix continued. "She' going to get every rebound and out run everyone. She still has a lot to learn, but we are really looking to those two transfers to help us out."

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