HIGH POINT, N.C. –
Lauren Bevis drained 27 points in her first game in purple and white as the High Point University women's basketball team defeat Barton College, 99-44 Friday night in an exhibition match at the Qubein Arena.
Head Coach Chelsea Banbury: "I am happy the way we came out, I thought we shot the ball well tonight from three. I'm happy to see that, and I think we work well together. We were moving the ball, finishing the game with 23 assists. I think when you finish a game with that many assists, you are playing good basketball and it's fun to play in. Defensively, holding any team to 44 points is an accomplishment."
High Point came out on the court for the first time in the 2023-24 season as ready as can be. The ball just kept finding the basket.
Claire Wyatt banked the first points for HPU off a layup,
Nakyah Terrell dished out the assist.
Bevis knocked down her first three pointer in a Panther uniform, finishing the first quarter with 11 points.
Bukky Akinsola finished the quarter with three points, two rebounds and two assists. High Point ended the quarter up 24-5
.
HPU stayed hot heading into the second quarter. Bevis continued to knock down threes. Terrell, Akinsola and
Shakira Baskerville were all able to get points.
The Panthers were up 45-19 at the half.
A key returner for the Panthers,
Claire Wyatt, got the scoring started in the third quarter off a layup in the paint. Great defense by the whole squad led to a lot of turnovers. High Point scored 42 points off the bench, which came mostly in the second half.
The true freshman,
Peyton Gerdes, entered the game in the fourth quarter and immediately drained a 3-pointer.
Nevaeh Zavala,
Faith Price, and Baskerville all contributed with points on the court.
Akinsola felt super comfortable in her first game at the arena, capping the night with 15 points, five assists and three rebounds.
"I felt like it was a different atmosphere, it was more fun, I wasn't nervous," said Akinsola. "Everybody just got everyone going, I felt like that was something that brought everyone together and the intensity was great."
Terrell was just shy of a triple-double with nine points, nine assists, and eight rebounds.
Up Next: High Point will travel to Virginia Tech on Monday, Nov. 6 for the regular season opener. Tipoff is set for 5 p.m. in Blacksburg, Va.
#H3U x #GoHPU
