HIGH POINT, N.C. – In front of a standing room only crowd on family weekend, High Point University men's basketball put on a thriller, defeating the Buccaneers of Charleston Southern, 81-73. The high scoring and high flying action was led by
Zack Austin with 19 points, seven rebounds and three blocks.
Site: Qubein Center
Score: High Point 81 , Charleston Southern 73
Records: High Point (11-13, 3-9) Charleston Southern (8-15, 4-8)
Coach G.G. Smith: "We're excited about the win, it's always good to get a home conference win. I know it's been ugly the last few games but our guys, they keep believing and they keep fighting and that's something I have to give them credit for. It was great to see a lot of families and students in town, making it a sellout crowd and I thought that gave us a lot of energy to start the game."
Austin started the first half hot, scoring 16 of his 19 points in the first 20 minutes of play. He went 3-for-3 early from three-point range to score nine of the Panthers 16 points mid-way through the stretch.
Alex Holt also got in the mix with Austin, scoring seven of his 13 points in the first. After being down five with four and a half minutes to go before the break, Holt collected a hook shot over his defender and a two-hand dunk off a dump down pass from
Ahmard Harvey.
Two back-to-back threes from
Brock Williams ended the first half with the Panthers down one, 39-40.
Following the break, High Point came out ready to play, taking their first lead of the game since the eight-minute mark in the first half. In a span of five minutes, the Panthers capitalized on good defensive stops to take a six-point lead, including a wide-open dunk from
Abdoulaye Thiam off a steal by Harvey.
It was hard for HPU to stop Charleston Southern's Tahlik Chavez, draining his seventh three of the night to tie the game at 55 all with just under 10 minutes to go.
The Panthers prevailed, not letting the Buccaneers get the edge, High Point held the lead even when Charleston Southern tied it up two more times.
Tied at 62 all at the four-minute mark, Williams sunk another three to put the crowd on their feet.
With the momentum rolling, the Panthers advanced to a six-point lead with 1:04 left to play in regulation. Forcing the Buccaneers to foul, High Point went 11-for-12 from the line in the last minute of action. High Point won 81-73 over Charleston Southern to pick-up their third conference win for the regular season.
Up Next: The Panthers travel a couple miles south down to Buies Creek, North Carolina to play Campbell for the second time this season. Tip-off is set for 7:00 pm inside the Gore Arena.
#GoHPU
