ORLANDO, Fla. – The High Point University women's basketball team upset the University of Central Florida, 64-60, to secure its first power-five win under Head Coach
Chelsea Banbury.
Site: Addition Financial Arena
Score: High Point 64, UCF 60
Records: High Point (5-7), UCF (7-3)
Head Coach Chelsea Banbury: "This one feels good. A good road win as we've struggled on the road. To bounce back from Saturday's game and to come in here at a Big 12 school and execute a game plan, it felt good. We had a lot of contributions from a lot of players. They gave us a hot start at the beginning, and then Aaliyah (Collins) did a great job of closing the game for us at the end."
In back-to-back games,
Nevaeh Zavala started the scoring for HPU with a three pointer. She did not stop there as Zavala tallied all the Panthers 11 points to start the night. HPU took a five-point lead into the first media timeout, 18-13. High Point continued to lead throughout the first quarter as the team shot 50% from beyond the arc. The Knights climbed back a tad as the Panthers took a 22-17 lead into the second quarter.
Central Florida dropped the Panthers lead to just one to start the second quarter, before
Dom Nesland knocked a three to go back up four. The Knights tied it at 25 after a made jumper with 6:41 left in the quarter. Anna Hager drove to the basket for a good layup to regain the HPU lead. High Point never gave the lead back after that basket. HPU hit two more threes from
Jaleesa Lawrence and
Nakyah Terrell to lead 33-25. High Point jumped to its biggest lead of the game with a 14-point lead with about a minute to play before the half. In the final minute, UCF knocked down a three pointer before Hager would score two on a driving layup to take High Point into the locker room with a 41-28 lead.
High Point was quick to jump on the board in the third quarter after
Chana Paxixe made a driving layup to extend the lead to 15. UCF closed the gap to eight points with 7:21 left on the clock. Another made three from Lawrence followed by Zavala's fourth three of the night to bring it back to a 14-point lead. Zavala went on to drain another three as she stayed hot from beyond the arc. With about 1:35 left in the third quarter, Terrell got open and drained the fourth HPU three of the quarter to go up 17. The Knights scored a layup and a jumper to close the quarter down 13, 59-46 to the Panthers.
The Knights started the fourth quarter with a 14-2 run to come within one point, 61-60 with 3:02 left on the clock.
Aaliyah Collins drained one of her foul shots to go back up one possession. High Point played good defense causing missed shots as they recovered the defensive rebound. High Point called a 30 second timeout before Collins drove through four defenders to the basket for a good layup to go up four points with 14 seconds left. UCF had one final chance to put points on the board, but HPU came up big and earned the win.
Zavala tied her career-high tonight with 19 points, as she went 5-for-7 from three and 7-10 from the field. Terrell and Lawrence both tallied 11 points on the floor as Collins was right behind them with 10 of her own.
The High Point win became the second team in Big South History to take down a Big 12 opponent.
Up Next: High Point will return home to the Qubein Center on Saturday, December 21 at 2:00 p.m. against Austin Peay State University.
#H3U x #GoHPU
