Farmville, Va. – The High Point University men's basketball team traveled to Longwood to play the last game of the Big South regular season. Taking it down to the final second, the Panthers fell 74-72.
Abdoulaye Thiam led the game with 21 points after going 4-for-10 from beyond the arc.
Duke Miles and
Kezza Giffa also scored in double-digits with 18 and 15 respectively.
Site: Joan Perry Brock Center
Score: High Point 72, Longwood 74
Records: High Point (24-7. 13-3), Longwood (18-13, 6-10)
Juslin Bodo Bodo opened the game how he normally does, with a dunk.
After scoring the first basket of the game, the Panthers trailed through most of the game. The Lancers forced some tough shots for the Panthers with their tight defense as both teams scraped after every and all loose balls.
Miles started heating up mid-way through the first half. After going down eight with seven minutes to go the Panthers worked to close the gap. Miles cashed in a pair of step-back threes to take the lead 32-31 with under a minute to go.
Trailing by one point at the start of the second half, 33-32, the teams battled through the final 20.
High Point went down by 13, five minutes into the second half. A three from Thiam cut it back to 10. Giffa knocked down another three while Miles secured two free throws to bring the game back within five at 47-42 with 13 minutes to go.
Going back down by eight with a little over six minutes left, High Point worked to close the game to three with 2:23 to go after Miles knocked down his third step-back bucket of the game.
In two possessions Giffa went to the line twice and knocked down three out of the four free throw attempts to tie the game at 70 all.
Kimani Hamilton drawled a foul with 35 seconds left and hit both free throws to put the Panthers up 72-70.
HPU played solid defense in the Lancers next possession and forced Longwood to miss a lay-up but an offensive rebound from the Lancers' Symon Zapala resulted in a goal-tending call on the Panthers to tie the game back up at 72 all with 17 seconds left.
High Point called a timeout and set up a play. Longwood forced the Panthers to turn the ball over out of bounds with five seconds left. The Lancers capitalized on the mistake and scored in the last second.
Up Next:
High Point prepares for the 2024 Hercules Tires Big South Basketball Championships which will begin on Wednesday, March 6 and go through Sunday March 10 at the Qubein Center. HPU has earned the No. 1 seed and will play the winner of the 8/9 seed game on Friday at 12:00 p.m.
#GoHPU
