HIGH POINT, N.C. – In the final game of the High Point University men's basketball teams' season, the Panthers dominated inside the Qubein Center to defeat USC Upstate 88-66. High Point finished the Big South regular season with a 14-2 record and were crowned the outright 2024-25 Big South Regular Season Champions in back-to-back seasons.
This marks the first time the Panthers have won back-to-back outright regular season titles in HPU Division I history. The last team in Big South history to win back-to-back regular season titles was in 2011 by Coastal Carolina. High Point's 26 wins is the most wins in a regular season in program history and in the last two seasons under Head Coach
Alan Huss, the Panthers are 53-14 overall.
"I'm thrilled for our seniors to go out on top," Huss stated. "It's difficult to win a regular season conference championship. It starts at the beginning of January and it spans two full months and ours is the double round robin where you play everyone twice, so you get everyone's best shot the second time. For us to go through that piece of the conference slate undefeated, I think it speaks to our team's growth."
Site: Qubein Center
Score: High Point 88, USC Upstate 66
Records: High Point (26-5, 14-2), USC Upstate (6-24, 2-13)
High Point honored five seniors on senior night ahead of tip-off including,
Kezza Giffa,
Chase Johnston,
Trae Benham,
Abdoulaye Thiam and Colby Taylor (head manager). All four seniors played 20+ minutes and contributed in multiple ways to the victory, led by Benham with a season-high 17 points, three rebounds and three steals.
"I'm thrilled for Trae," Huss added. " He's been a selfless leader on our team this season. We've had so many guys step up on different nights this season and I think its fitting that on the night that we clinch the regular season championship, that Trae is sitting here next to me. He started one game this season and did whatever we asked him to do. He's learned to be a winner at the absolute highest level and he's really learned to be selfless. His faith is such a big part of his life and his impact on our team, on me personally and everyone that he encounters is special and its something that I will never forget and I'm just so thankful for him."
After a slow first five minutes of the game for both teams, High Point picked up the pace around the 14-minute mark. Giffa and
Bobby Pettiford went in for back-to-back layups to give HPU the 13-7 lead. Shortly after,
Kimani Hamilton and Benham each knocked down three-pointers to push the Panthers to a double-digit lead, 19-9 with 11 and a half minutes to go in the first half.
Three minutes later, Benham splashed in his second three of the game off a pass from Giffa to give HPU a 28-16 lead at the eight minute mark. From that point on, the Panthers never led by less than 10 points and extended their lead to 19 at the half to lead 49-30. Hamilton and Benham led the game going into the half with 12 and 11 points respectively.
At the start of the second half, High Point continued to dominate as Hamilton took a hand off from Giffa straight to the rim for the two-handed jam. In the next possession, Hamilton secured the defensive rebound and passed the ball up in transition to Johnston for the open three, giving the Panthers a 59-35 lead with 16 minutes to go in the game.
High Point kept the intensity and pressed on to its largest lead of the game by 28 points with a jumper in the lane from Giffa. At the 9:34 mark,
Josh Ibukunoluwa flushed a lob pass from Pettiford on the pick and roll action to make it 73-45.
In the final minutes of the game, Thiam and Benham secured their last points of the game with a Thiam three in the corner and a steal at half court from Benham for the left handed layup. With three minutes left on the clock, all four seniors were subbed out for the last time inside the Qubein Center.
Getting to play in the final three minutes,
Andrew Sineway,
Liam Carney and
Birgir Irving each scored as Irving drained the first three of his career in front of the HPU bench. High Point defeated USC Upstate 88-66, picking up its fourth consecutive win by 20+ points to extend its win streak to 11.
UP NEXT:
High Point has a week break before heading to the Hercules Tires Big South Basketball Championships. HPU has earned the No. 1 seed and will play on Friday at 12:00 p.m. in Johnson City, Tennessee at Freedom Hall against the winner of the 8/9 seed game.
#GoHPU x #OnTheProwl
