Radford, Va. – The High Point men's basketball team opened Big South conference play on Wednesday evening with a matchup against the Highlanders of Radford University. Making the trip up to Virginia, the Panthers picked up their first conference win with the 85-71 victory.
Along with the first conference road win of the season, HPU picked up the first win on the road at Radford since the 2017-18 season after stealing the 61-60 win in the final seconds.
Two Panthers dropped twenty points as
Kezza Giffa led with a season-high 24 points and
Duke Miles recorded 23 (8
th game with 20+ points). Both shooting exceptionally well, Giffa went 5-for-7 from the field for a 71.4% shooting night and a perfect 11-for-11 from the line.
"I'm extremely proud of our team's effort tonight,' Head Coach
Alan Huss stated. "Radford is an excellent team that is very well coached. Our guys fought hard and made unselfish plays at critical junctures in the game. We will now turn our attention to a terrific Gardner-Webb team that is coming to the Qubein Center this Saturday.
Site: Dedmon Center
Score: High Point 85, Radford 71
Records: High Point (12-4, 1-0), Radford (10-6, 0-1)
It was a physical game throughout the full 40 minutes. Both teams were aggressive, hustling after loose balls and battling for rebounds.
After a 10-8 lead for HPU in the first five minutes of action, Radford led through the next 12 minutes. The Highlanders knocked down a couple threes to help boost their momentum and get the crowd involved while the Panthers struggled for a stretch to find the touch and get a basket to drop.
Down by one at 33-32 with just under four minutes left to play, Giffa took one for the team and picked up a charge. This lit a fire in the HPU team and helped shift the momentum of the game.
Following Giffa's charge, Miles scored on back-to-back fastbreak layups to put the Panthers up for the first time since the 15-minute mark. Contending for SportsCenter top 10, his second layup was filthy following a mid-court steal.
High Point led by one at the half, 38-37.
The Panthers steadily extended the lead, stretching the gap to as many as seven with 10 minutes left to go in the game.
Trae Benham scored seven points down the stretch as a three-pointer from the corner contributed to the seven-point lead at 58-51.
A quick six points from Giffa with an and-one layup and a three put the Panthers up by 12 with 8:25 to go.
Pavlo Dziuba recorded his first points with the purple and white after getting fouled on a hook shot in the paint to make it 69-58.
Juslin Bodo Bodo secured 11 rebounds, with seven coming from the offensive end. An offensive rebound late in second from Bodo Bodo gave Benham an opportunity to score two points. In the next offensive possession, a drive from
Kimani Hamilton made the defense collapse, opening up a dump down for a dunk from Bodo Bodo to make it 77-64 with three minutes left in regulation.
Radford was unable to close the gap to under 10 as the Panthers took home the 14-point win, 85-71.
Up Next:
High Point returns home to the Qubein Center to host Gardner-Webb on Saturday, January 6th at 2:00 p.m.
#GoHPU
