WHEN: Saturday, March 3 | 2:00 p.m.
WHERE: Vines Center | Lynchburg, Va.
RECORDS: High Point (16-12, 10-7), Liberty (20-9, 15-2)
SERIES RECORD: Liberty leads 39-14
LAST MEETING: Liberty won 65-42 in the Millis Center on Jan. 30, 2018
VIDEO: Big South Network
AUDIO: High Point Panthers Radio Network
LIVE STATS: Liberty.Edu/Flames
GAME NOTES: HighPointPanthers.Com
 
HIGH POINT, N.C. – The High Point University women's basketball team heads to Liberty for a 2:00 p.m. tip on Saturday in the Vines Center.
 
The regular season finale will allow the Panthers (16-12, 10-7) to become familiar with the venue of next week's Big South Championship. Meanwhile, the Flames (20-9, 15-2) will be aiming to clinch an outright conference regular season title on Saturday.
 
Quick Hitters
• Over the last six games, Emma Bockrath is averaging 16.7 points, 8.7 rebounds and 1.2 steals per game. The team is relying heavily on the junior as she's averaging 37.3 minutes per game and has played all 40 in four of those six contests. 
 
• Shea Morgan has scored in double figures in nine of the 17 Big South games this season. The junior had scored in double figures in 16 times in her previous 72 career appearances.
 
• The Panthers are 14-4 when at least three players score in double figures this season and are 14-3 when they score 60 or more points. However, the team has been held below 60 in eight of the last 11 games.
 
• Camryn Brown is shooting 42 percent from beyond the arc and scoring 11.9 points per game in road games this season.
 
• Bockrath was named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District Team for the second straight season. She joins Leslie Cook as the only two Panthers to achieve the feat twice. Last year, Bockrath's selection made her the third All-District selection at High Point.
 
• Head coach DeUnna Hendrix has 74 Big South wins, which makes her the eighth winningest coach in league history. Meanwhile, her .661 winning percentage is the third-highest mark among coaches with 100 regular season league games.
 
• The Panthers are 74-37 against conference foes under Hendrix. That's the second-best mark in the league during her tenure at High Point trailing only Liberty and includes a 34-20 mark when hosting Big South opponents on the road.
 
• The Panthers are 4-1 in regular season finales under Hendrix. Last season, High Point concluded the year with a victory over the Big South regular season Radford. The squad will have a chance to repeat the feat with Liberty already clinching a share of the title.
 
Postseason Implications
• At 10-7 entering the weekend, High Point can still tie UNC Asheville (11-6) if HPU beats Liberty and the Bulldogs fall to Gardner-Webb. However, the Purple & White are locked into the No. 4 seed in the upcoming tournament due to UNC Asheville holding the season tiebreaker. Although the team's split, the Bulldogs' 1-1 mark against Radford would decide the seeding because HPU with 0-2 against the Highlanders.
 
• The Flames clinch the top seed in the tournament with a win and/or a Radford loss to Campbell. If Liberty and Radford tie for the top spot, the Highlanders will get the No. 1 seed.
 
1,000-Point Teammates
• Bockrath became the 10th HPU D-I player to reach 1,000 points with her 21-point outing versus UNC Asheville on Feb. 11.
 
• Last time out, Harris joined Bockrath in the 1,000-point club becoming the 11th in HPU's Division I era.
 
• Prior to this season, last time the Purple & White had teammates reach 1,000 points in the same season was when Cheyenne Parker and Erin Reynolds reached that threshold during the 2012-13 campaign.
 
Turning Up the Heat on Defense
• The Panthers defense under new associate head coach Heather Kearney has played a more in-your-face style of defense. That change in style has resulted in improved three-point defense (.310 to .284), steals per game (7.3 to 10.0) and turnovers forced per game (14.4 to 19.07).
 
• High Point is fourth in the Big South in three-point field goal percentage defense and ranks 33rd nationally allowing opponents to hit 28.4 percent from deep.
 
• Led by Bockrath, the league's top thief, seven of the eight players in the team's standard rotation average at least 0.8 steals per game.
 
• The havoc caused by the defense has exploded in Big South action as the team is winning the turnover margin by 6.47 turnovers per game. HPU has parlayed those extra possessions into a 355-190 edge in points off turnovers.
 
Coming on Late
Sophomore Olivia VanSlooten shot nearly 64 percent from the floor in the month of February after entering the second month of 2018 with a 43-percent mark. During those eight games, the Ohio product upped her season high in points three times.
 
All-Time Series with Liberty
The Flames are the only current member of the Big South who owns a winning record all-time against High Point with Liberty leading the series 39-14.
 
Scouting the Flames
The Flames are 10-0 at home and have won their previous eight Big South contests in the Vines Center by an average of 18 points. Liberty will be playing for an outright regular season title behind the league's top in-conference scoring in Keyen Green (15. ppg).
 
What to Watch
High Point's league-lead in scoring is the smallest it has been all year as Liberty has averaged 80.3 points per game over its last three contests. Due to that hot streak, the Flames (64.3) are just 1.1 points off HPU's average (65.4).
 
Last Time They Met
Liberty outshot the Panthers 52 percent to 31 percent en route to a 65-42 victory earlier this season. HPU struggled to stop Green who finished with 19 points and 14 boards that night.
 
Next Up
The Panthers will return to the Vines Center for the Big South Championship Quarterfinals playing in the 2:00 game on Friday afternoon against Presbyterian, Campbell or Gardner-Webb. CU controls its own destiny for that No. 5 spot.
 
#GoHPU