High Point Men’s Basketball Takes Road Loss To Arkansas

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The High Point University men’s basketball team struggled offensively all night, taking an 89-48 loss to Arkansas on Saturday at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville, Ark. Junior guard Devante Wallace led the Panthers in scoring for the second game in a row with 13 points.

“Obviously this wasn’t our best performance but give Arkansas all the credit, they did what they needed to do,” said HPU head coach Scott Cherry. “We prepared for the press but didn’t execute. We have a young team going through a tough stretch of road games. We’re working through it.

“We’ve played three different high-level teams that play three different styles in Georgetown, Syracuse and Arkansas. Hopefully the experience will help us prepare for conference games. We won’t face this kind of size and skill in our conference.”

Wallace shot 5-for-8 from the floor and 3-for-5 from three-point range. Redshirt-sophomore John Brown and sophomore Adam Weary each scored nine points.

Arkansas had five double-digit scorers including freshman Bobby Portis, who scored 16 points with nine rebounds – both team highs. Sophomore Michael Qualls and freshman Moses Kingsley each scored 12 points off the bench with Kingsley also adding nine boards.

High Point fell to 3-8 while Arkansas improved to 10-2.

The Panthers struggled with the Razorbacks’ press in the early minutes, committing five turnovers and four fouls by the first official timeout. Arkansas jumped out to leads of 13-2 and 32-11 before the Panthers started to even it out in the last six minutes of the half. Wallace hit a three-pointer from the corner that made it 32-14. Three minutes later, Wallace hit a three-pointer as the shot clock ran out. Dejuan McGaughy stole the ball and hit a jumper on the next play, making it 36-20. It was 42-23 at the break after Arkansas’ Alandise Harris hit a jumper in the closing seconds.

HPU’s Weary hit the first basket of the second half – a three-pointer – but the Razorbacks scored the next nine points, prompting an HPU timeout. The Panthers responded with consecutive buckets by Cliff Cornish and Lorenzo Cugini (a three-pointer) to make it 51-31. It was 57-36 after a Wallace three and a Brown putback with 12:35 to go.

Arkansas went on an 11-2 run that was capped by a fast-break alley-oop from Kikko Haydar to Qualls, who was fouled on the dunk. He hit the free throw that made it 68-38. The Panthers hit consecutive baskets after the alley-oop, but Arkansas outscored HPU 21-6 after that en route to the 89-48 final.

The Panthers finish their four-game road stretch on Monday when they take on Wofford at 7 p.m. in Spartanburg, S.C. The Panthers and Terriers played at the Millis Center on Nov. 24 with HPU getting a 66-56 victory.

One thought on “High Point Men’s Basketball Takes Road Loss To Arkansas

  1. Qubein got rid of two pretty good basketball coaches at HPU, in Lundy and Loy, because they weren’t big-time enough for him. How’s that working out for you, big guy?

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