HIGH POINT, N.C. — Redshirt-sophomore John Brown put up 24 points, including 20 in the second half, while junior guard Devante Wallace scored a career-high 21 points to lead the High Point University men’s basketball team to an 83-75 win over Longwood University on Wednesday night at the Millis Center.
“This was a good effort from our team after a tough stretch of adversity over the last month,” said HPU head coach Scott Cherry. “Devante did a great job shooting the ball and defending Longwood’s top scorer and John really got going in the second half. We’ve got a game plan for the rest of the season and now we’ll go and try to get a road win on Saturday. We can get right back in it.”
After Wednesday night’s results, there were no teams left undefeated in Big South games and eight teams were tied at 2-1. High Point improved to 5-11 overall and 1-2 in Big South play while Longwood fell to 5-13 and 0-3.
Brown shot 9-of-18 from the floor and 6-of-8 from the line to lead HPU in scoring for the ninth time this season. Wallace tied his career high with four three-pointers en route to his career-high 21 points. His previous best against a Div. I team was 17 at William & Mary on Nov. 20. Freshman Anthony Lindauer set a career high with 11 points and hit three treys.
Senior guard Tristan Carey led Longwood with 15 points in the game. Three other Lancer players finished in double figures on the night as Karl Ziegler scored 14 points all in the second half and Lucas Woodhouse and Leron Fisher chipped in with 13 points a piece. Woodhouse dished 10 assists, the most of any HPU opponent this season.
Wallace connected from behind the arc on HPU’s first two possessions of the game as the Panthers opened up an early 8-3 lead on the Lancers. His treys came from the right and left sides of the floor. Longwood came right back to tie the game at 8-8 and it was tight throughout the half. With the score tied at 24-24, the Panthers got a three-pointer from Lindauer and a pair of free throws from sophomore Haiishen McIntyre to go ahead. HPU led 33-29 at the break.
Longwood opened the second half on a 9-4 run to go ahead by one, 38-37, with 16:14 left to play. It was the Lancers’ only lead of the second half as High Point responded with a 13-3 run of its own, making it 50-41. Brown scored eight points in the run and Wallace chipped in with five, including his third three pointer of the game.
High Point built its lead to 12 (63-51) when Wallace hit all three free throws on a three-shot foul with eight minutes remaining. Longwood trimmed the Panther lead down to six (70-64), with 2:25 left before sophomore Adam Weary came right back with an old-fashioned three-point play to put HPU up by nine. With the shot clock winding down, Weary crossed over his defender and drove into the lane. The Lancers were called for both a foul and goaltending on the shot and Weary hit the resulting free throw to put the game out of reach.
High Point forced 19 turnovers in the game, scoring 20 points off those turnovers. The Panthers connected on a season-high nine three pointers in the game, shooting 50 percent from behind the arc on the night. McIntyre, who had been averaging 4.5 minutes per game, played 11 minutes and scored five points with a career-highs of three assists and three steals.
High Point returns to action on Saturday when the team heads to Lynchburg, Va., to take on the Flames of Liberty University. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. and it will have live video on ESPN3 as well as the Big South Network.