Robertson, Parker lead High Point Women’s Basketball Past Longwood

HIGH POINT, N.C. – Red-shirt sophomore Stacia Robertson scored a career-high 28 points to lead the High Point University women’s basketball team to an 83-66 victory over first-place Longwood on Thursday night at the Millis Center. Junior Cheyenne Parker scored her 1,000th career point in the win.

“We are playing with a lot of confidence right now and the results are easy to see,” said head coach DeUnna Hendrix. “We are asking the team to give us 40 minutes of maximum effort and when they do that we’ve had success. Stacia was great tonight with 28 points and Cheyenne reaching 1,000 career points is incredible. She is just a junior and has already achieved so much.”

Robertson was 10-for-15 from the field and 8-for-8 on the line for the night. She also had nine rebounds and three assists. Parker became the seventh HPU women’s basketball player to eclipse 1,000 points for her career. Parker also recorded her fifteenth double-double of the season with 16 points and 10 rebounds. She added seven blocks and six assists.

Junior guard Tayler Tremblay also passed her season- high in points with 19 and dished out six assists.

Freshman Daeisha Brown led the Lancers in scoring and rebounding with 29 and 10.

The Panthers improve to 12-7 overall and 6-2 in the Big South while Longwood falls to 9-10 for the season with a 6-2 mark in the league.

High Point jumped out early against Longwood. Taking advantage of their height, Parker and Robertson pushed the Panthers to an early 7-0 lead. The Lancers went on a quick 8-2 run to put themselves back within one, 9-8, but back-to-back lay-ups from Robertson and Parker would increase the Panther lead to five.

The Lancers took their first lead of the game, 14-13, at 12:51 in the first half after a three-pointer from Raven Williams. Graduate student Kendra Wallace was the first non-forward to score for the Panthers after she hit a midrange jumper to regain the Panther lead, 20-19, at 9:39. The Panthers would keep the lead for the remainder of the opening period.

A put-back from Parker would give the Panthers their largest lead of the half at 10 points with 3:27 left to play. Defensive pressure from the Lancers created Panther turnovers and allowed the Lancers to close the gap to four, 40-36. Another lay-up from Parker and a three-pointer from Tremblay sustained the Panther lead and allowed them to go into the half with a score of 45-37.

The opening minutes of the second half were marked by a milestone. After being fouled, Parker headed to the line and hit her 1,000th career point at 17:50.

The remainder of the game was a back and forth scoring battle between the teams but the Panthers never gave up their lead. Longwood used an 8-2 run midway through the second half to pull with four, 56-52, with just over 11 minutes remaining. That was as close as the Lancers would get as HPU responded with a 17-6 run of it’s on to push the lead back to 15, 73-58. High Point’s largest lead was 18 with less than a minute remaining before ultimately winning with the final score of 83-66.

Wallace finished the game with seven points and four rebounds. Redshirt-sophomore Lindsay Puckett added seven points, six rebounds and four assists.

The Panthers return to the Millis Center on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. for a conference matchup against Radford. High Point holds a 20-14 record all-time against the Highlanders, with a 12-4 mark at the Millis Center.