CHARLESTON, S.C. – The High Point University women’s basketball team pulled out a 91-90 overtime thriller at Charleston Southern Monday night. Panthers’ guard Ashante Richard hit a game-winning layup under the basket off an assist from Stacia Robertson with three seconds to go in overtime to win.
“We will take any win, especially on the road,” said HPU head coach DeUnna Hendrix. “It was obvisoulsy a back-and-forth battle all night. We did some uncharacteristic things tonight that we’ll definitely watch film on and work on but I give Charleston Southern a lot of credit for their fight tonight.”
It was a back-and-forth battle all-night long with the two teams swapping the lead 16 times and the score being knotted 17 times. The Panthers hit just two field goals in the overtime period but Richard made the one that counted to give HPU a victory over the Buccaneers. CSU took its first lead, 83-81, since 6:53 left in the second half after winning the tip in overtime, which led to a Dotson layup. Dotson scored CSU’s first seven points in the overtime period for CSU.
HPU trailed 90-89 with 19.6 seconds remaining after Dotson hit two free throws following a Teddy Vincent defensive foul. Lexi Patterson pulled up for a close range jumper following an HPU timeout but was blocked. The ball went off of Charleston Southern giving HPU one last chance with 4.7 seconds remaining on the clock. Coming out of a CSU timeout, Richard inbounded the ball from the corner to Robertson, who hit Richard breaking towards the basket for the game-winner.
Kaylah Keys led all scorers with 28 points to go along with six steals and four assists. DeAnneisha Jackson posted her first career double-double of 14 points and 13 boards in the win.
With the win, HPU moves to 16-9 on the year and 12-4 in Big South play. CSU drops its eighth-straight game to fall to 8-18 overall and 4-13 in conference play.
High Point jumped out to a quick lead by scoring the first nine points of the game. Redshirt-junior Stacia Robertson started the 9-0 run with a layup under the basket off a pass from junior Ashante Richard. HPU continued to pile it on early following that up with a Latrice Phelps jumper before Kaylah Keys nailed a long three-point attempt from the top of the arc to give HPU a quick 7-0 lead. Following a CSU timeout, freshman Teddy Vincent grabbed an offensive board and put back a layup to stretch the Panthers’ lead to 9-0.
CSU finally got on the board with 14:48 remaining in the first half when forward Tatum Jarvis hit a trey. The bucket started a 6-0 scoring run for the Bucs and brought CSU right back into the game. The Bucs grabbed their first lead of the contest with 8:38 left in the first when guard Erin Bratcher hit a three from the corner to put the Bucs up 21-18. The Panthers and Buccaneers continued to trade blows the rest of the half, which featured six ties and six lead changes. A fast break underhand layup by Keys with 1:20 remaining in the first ended the scoring for either team in the first period of play and sent HPU to the locker rooms up a one point advantage, 36-35.
The second half featured more of the same with the teams going back and forth six more times and swapping the lead seven more times. HPU tried to pull away mid-way through the half with an 8-0 run spanning over two minutes. The run was marked by a Keys’ three and Jackson layup to give HPU its biggest lead of the half, 70-64. The lead once again didn’t last long as CSU snuck back into the game and ultimately tied it 81-81 on guard Erin Bratcher’s sixth three-pointer of the night.with 14 seconds left to go in regulation.
Bratcher and Dotson both scored 22 points for the Bucs in the loss. High Point outrebounded CSU 52-39 in the game, including 17 offensive boards that led to 22 second chance points. HPU was outscored on points off of turnovers, 35-28, after turning the ball over a season-high 27 times.
High Point now returns to the Millis Center for the final two home games of the season this week. The Panthers will take on Gardner-Webb on Thursday at 7 p.m. before hosting UNC Asheville in the home finale on Saturday at 4 p.m. HPU has already topped both GWU and UNC-Asheville earlier this season.