Box Score HIGH POINT, N.C. - Two days after receiving a vote in the Associated Press Top 25 men's college basketball polls, the High Point University men's basketball team stays hot with an 83-60 win over Charleston Southern on Saturday night to extend the Panthers' win streak to nine games behind a game-high 20 points from
Kimani Hamilton and 18 points from
Kezza Giffa.
"Good effort from our guys. Obviously we needed to have a couple guys step up tonight. D'Maurian [Williams] was not available to go. I thought Abdoulaye [Thiam] did a nice job stepping in without practicing at all because D'Maurian kind of had a little bit of an injury in pregame warmups so he [Thiam] had to go out there and execute a gameplan that he had zero reps at with that group, at that spot. It was a really nice job by him to step into that roll," said Head Coach
Alan Huss. "I thought we were pretty good defensively for most of the night… for the most part we were pretty sound defensively. Overall it was a sound effort."
Site: Qubein Center
Score: High Point 83, Charleston Southern 60
Records: High Point (24-5, 12-2), Charleston Southern (10-19, 6-8)
Hamilton got the game started with a fadeaway jumper for the team's first points of the game. A steal on the defensive end by
Abdoulaye Thiam led to Hamilton attacking the basket and rising above his defender for the emphatic one-handed, posterizing, slam.
The Panthers extended their lead to over double-digits, 22-8, after identical back-to-back three-point baskets from the left corner from Thiam.
Giffa drove to the basket and found a soaring
Juslin Bodo Bodo for the alley-oop dunk to advance HPU's lead, 33-17. HPU closed out the first half with a 39-28 lead behind nine points from Hamilton, eight from
Bobby Pettiford, and seven from Giffa.
After scoring the first bucket in the first half, Hamilton came out the gates in the second half and recorded the first basket of the half for the Panthers to put him in double-digit scoring with 11 points.
After putting on a series of moves up the court, Giffa finished the highlight with a beautiful layup at the rim.
"I thought he [Giffa] really got to his spot and adjusted to the way the game was being officiated. They were a little more physical tonight. I thought he just did a tremendous job of getting to his spot and finishing baskets tonight," said Huss.
Giffa added to his electric offensive night with a three-pointer from near the top of the key for his fourth straight bucket for the Panthers. The three-pointer helped push HPU's scoring run to 16-4, and gave Giffa a game-high 18 points on 8-13 shooting from the court overall.
"Just taking what the defense gave to me. I knew what I was walking into. We watched film. We worked on that those past two days… I knew if they gave me those shots, I would take it," said Giffa.
"I thought he [Giffa] really got to his spot and adjusted to the way the game was being officiated. They were a little more physical tonight. I thought he just did a tremendous job of getting to his spot and finishing baskets tonight," said Huss.
Pettiford was doing it on both ends of the court as he stole a pass, and then finished on the offensive end with a two handed jam. Not only was Pettiford stealing passes and getting buckets, but he was also getting his teammates involved also as he found Bodo Bodo up top for the two-handed alley-oop dunk.
As the shot clock ticked down to zero, Hamilton drained a step-back three-pointer before the buzzer sounded to push HPU's lead to 22 points, 74-52.
Pettiford found Thiam on the right wing as he knocked down a three-pointer with 3:23 remaining in the second half.
"I thought Abdoulaye was tremendous. I thought just mentally, he went out there, and he was not always perfect tonight because he had not had a ton of reps practicing at that spot, but I thought just for doing it on the fly the way he was able to do it, I thought he was absolutely fantastic tonight. I was really, really happy for him," said Huss. "I am really thrilled for him that he has found success here late in the year because he deserves it."
HPU shot 62.1 percent from the court overall in the second half to help secure the win, 83-60, to extend its win streak to nine games. Hamilton led the way with a game-high 20 points. Giffa added 18 points with four assists, helping him reach his 1000th career point. Pettiford finished with 14 points and three assists.
"I thought Kezza, Kimani, Bobby, in particular those three guys, did an unbelievable job of taking what the defense gave them," said Huss.
UP NEXT: The Panthers will travel to Boiling Springs, N.C. as they square off against Gardner-Webb University on Saturday, Feb. 22 at 2 p.m.
#GoHPU x #OnTheProwl
