HPU ends season at Radford
High Point University’s men’s basketball team fell to top-seeded Radford University 82-58 in the quarterfinals of the Big South Tournament.
HPU (9-21) could not stop the inside presence allowing Radford (19-11) to score 38 points in the paint. In the second half, High Point also shot a dismal 11-for-35 from the floor for 31.4 percent. Read more
HPU to play in March despite loss
Despite losing Saturday night, HPU clinched the final spot of the Big South tournament.
VMI (22-7, 13-5 Big South) won their first contest in High Point, 81-76. HPU (9-20, 4-14) had four players finish with double figures.
Melvin Crowder shined in his final home game in front of 1,642 in attendance. Crowder finished with a career best 14 points, including four 3-pointers.
HPU falls in overtime
High Point University lost another close game Tuesday night against UNC-Asheville. The Bulldogs (13-14, 9-7 Big South) defeated the Panthers (8-18, 4-12) in overtime, 81-78.
“It another disappointing loss. We played hard it’s just the little things that were not doing that are costing us the games,” Jourdan Morris said.
The Panthers were lead by inside forces Cruz Daniels and Jourdan Morris. Daniels finished with 25 points and 15 rebounds. Morris tallied his first 20-point outing, finishing with 21 points and three assists. Nick Barbour scored double-digits for the eighth straight game with 14 points.
“[Head] Coach [Bart] Lundy told us in practice we were going to have advantage of size. That’s just it. We just worked on getting it inside,” said Daniels. HPU outscored UNCA 40-30 in the paint.
Down by as many as 12 in the second half, the Panthers used an 11-0 run to claw back into the game before a hectic final minute.
HPU took a two-point lead with 1:50 left in the game. It was the first lead in over 33 minutes of play. Asheville regained the lead with 45 seconds thanks to a layup from John Williams.
Cruz Daniels flushed a dunk after a David Singleton missed layup to tie the game for the sixth time. Williams responded with his own dunk on the other end of the court with four seconds remaining.
David Singleton drove the length of the court to pass off to Gene Harris who made a jumper on the baseline at the buzzer.
“I just had to throw it up and just lucky it went in,” Harris said following the game.
The Bulldogs controlled the overtime period. The Panthers never held a lead in the extra five minutes of play, trailing by no more than three points.
The first half featured high shooting percentage for both squads. UNCA shot 16 of 26 from the floor for 61.5 percent. The Panthers shot 15 of 27 from the floor for 55.6 percent.
Hurting High Point were the 12 turnovers. Asheville scored seven points off of HPU’s turnovers. The Bulldogs had a seven point lead heading into halftime.
“Really it comes down to playing hard. We are going to learn from this mistake and we are going to try to work on the next game,” Daniels said.
High Point takes the floor next Monday against Longwood University. The Lancers are 14-12 on the year including wins over George Washington, James Madison and Gardner-Webb. LU is 2-9 on the road and will bring a two game road losing streak to the Millis Center Feb. 23.
High school wins mean college success?
Recently ran in the Campus Chronicle. Enjoy!
Pop quiz: Can the men’s program become successful?
The men’s team hasn’t won a game at home versus a NCAA Division I team. We have already lost seven games at home total this year. Our most losses in the Millis Center is eight. We are too close to that dubious distinction.
For most of our players this is the worst team they have ever played on by the numbers. At 5-15 they aren’t setting the world on fire right now, especially considering three of those wins were against non-D1 opponents.
On realtimerpi.com we are ranked 336 out of 343 teams. We beat NC Central and they are ranked higher than us; they only have one win. Yeah, this is a tough year.
Where can we go from here? You would think there couldn’t be any further fallout. We are last in the Big South with a lone win coming in Rock Hill versus Winthrop. We can only go up, right?
Well, no. We could stay last and be the first team to be left out of the Big South tournament. That would be the lowest of all lows. We could also lose every game for the rest of the year including a game on MASN against Gardner-Webb and the home contest against independent Longwood. Traditionally, we have not done well on television. Also, we lost at Longwood last year and they have key wins this year against James Madison and George Mason, albeit both games were at Longwood.
On the flip side, Bart and the boys could figure out how to hold on to a 10 point lead at half or even a nine point lead with two minutes remaining. It isn’t like these guys are used to winning.
Melvin Crowder won a state championship in high school against a little guard named Chris Paul. Paul now plays in the NBA for the New Orleans Hornets. Gene Harris lead his prep team to a top five ranking nationally. Cruz Daniels’ high school team went 55-5 his final two years. The prep team for Jourdan Morris was state runners up in Maryland. Steadman Short’s senior year included an 18 game win streak. David Singleton lead his prep team to their first 20-win season in over a decade. Nick Bourbor lost one game last year.
This team knows how to win. They have done it before. Can they piece their previous success together to make a successful Panther program? Time is running out to answer the question. Let’s raise the bar together.
