BUIES CREEK, N.C. — The High Point University men’s basketball team held Campbell scoreless for 5:26 down the stretch, pulling away for a 58-52 win over the Camels on Wednesday night at Gore Arena in Buies Creek, N.C. Graduate student Allan Chaney led HPU with 18 points while redshirt-freshman John Brown scored 14 with a team-high eight rebounds.
“We played defensively the whole game,” said HPU head coach Scott Cherry. “Campbell went on a couple of runs but our guys kept working. We caused 16 turnovers, which I wasn’t sure we’d be able to do against that team, and we made them take tough shots. Our offense clicked for most of the night.”
Chaney led the Panthers in scoring for the eighth time this season. Brown shot 6-for-12 from the floor and 2-for-2 from the line. Freshman guard Adam Weary scored 10 points with four rebounds and two steals. The Panthers shot 46.0 percent (23-for-50) from the floor.
Campbell was led by redshirt-sophomore forward Darius Leonard’s 12 points. He scored 10 of them in the first half. Antwon Oliver scored 10 points with eight rebounds and point guard Trey Freeman scored six points with eight rebounds and eight assists.
High Point improved to 12-10 overall and 7-3 in Big South play. The Panthers maintained their first-place position in the North Division of the Big South. Campbell fell to 10-14 overall and 5-5 in the league.
After High Point took an early lead, the rest of the first period went back and forth. Brown scored HPU’s first four field goals and the Panthers were up 8-2. That was the largest lead for either team before the break. Campbell came back and took a 9-8 lead when Leonard hit a jumper but HPU was back up, 11-9, on a long jumper from Devante Wallace with under 13 minutes to play. Three minutes later, it was tied 15-15 when Law grabbed a rebound under the basket, dribbled once and put in off the glass.
High Point got slight edge when Weary stole the ball, went to the hoop and drew a foul for a three-point play that made it 22-17. Campbell came back and tied it at 24-24 on an Oliver free throw with 5:10 to go. It was 26-25 High Point at halftime.
The Panthers got out to a nine-point lead early in the second half but Campbell came back to make it tight the rest of the way. The first three baskets after the break were a dunk by Brown, a three-pointer by Weary and a short-range jumper from Chaney that made it 33-25. Four minutes later, Chaney finished a three-point play that made it 40-31. That was HPU’s largest lead until the last minute when it led by nine again.
Down nine, Campbell scored nine in a row starting and finishing with jumpers from Freeman. The later came from the right side to make it 40-40 with 9:28 left in the game. After Chaney hit a free throw, Darian Hooker hit a three-pointer to give the Camels a 43-41 lead. That was Campbell’s only lead of the half, although it was close the rest of the way.
High Point’s next score was a dunk from Brown to tie it at 43-43. After assisting on Brown’s dunk, HPU senior Corey Law drew a charge on the next play to give HPU the ball back. Junior guard Derrell Edwards sank a three-pointer on the ensuing possession to lift HPU to a 46-43 lead. The Panthers’ margin fell to a point when Campbell’s Leek Leek hit a three-pointer that made it 48-47 with 5:36 on the clock, but High Point’s defense took over after that.
After several defensive stops by both teams, Freeman tried to save the ball going out of bounds but passed it right to HPU’s Edwards. Edwards took it in for his first dunk of the season, making it 50-47. HPU held Campbell without a field goal for the next 5:26, gaining a 56-47 lead by that point. Hooker scored five points in the last seven seconds, offset by a pair of Chaney free throws to make the final 58-52.
It was High Point’s eighth win in its last 11 games. HPU’s 7-3 Big South record is the team’s best through 10 games since starting 8-2 in 2006-07.
High Point will look to continue its success when it comes back to the Millis Center on Saturday. THe Panthers face Coastal Carolina for a 7 p.m. tip-off.