HPU WBB Travels To Charleston Southern On Thursday

HIGH POINT, N.C. – The High Point University women’s basketball team will be back on the road to take on Charleston Southern at 7 p.m. on Thursday in the Buc Dome.

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The Panthers (8-6, 4-1) are coming off of a convincing home win over Campbell on Tuesday night and will look to continue to build momentum against the Buccaneers (3-9, 0-4).

Last Time Out:
The Purple & White continued its success at home by picking up a 79-59 win over Campbell inside the Millis Center on Monday. As she has all year, redshirt-senior Stacia Robertson led the team on both ends of the court with 21 points – 13 in the second half – to go along with seven rebounds, three blocks and a steal.

Balance was key for the Panthers as sophomore Kaylah Keys (16), sophomore Teddy Vincent (14) and redshirt-senior Lindsay Puckett (10) joined Robertson in double figures. Vincent, Keys and Puckett combined to hit seven 3-pointers, which gave Robertson plenty of room to work inside, as she knocked down 9-of-10 shots from the floor.

Senior Ashante Richard played a key role in the offense by controlling the pace and dishing out a season-best seven assists. Overall, the squad tallied 15 assists on its 31 made baskets.

HPU controlled the glass, earning a 40-29 advantage in rebounds and winning the battle of the benches 24-9 behind Vincent’s 14 points and sophomore DeAnneisha Jackson’s eight-point outing. The Panthers’ defense made it hard on the visiting Camels allowing them to hit just 2-of-9 from beyond the arc while turning 24 turnovers into 26 points on the other end.

The victory was the fourth straight win over Campbell after the team swept the Camels in three meetings last season.

The Opponent:
The Buccaneers are coming off a tough 53-51 loss at Radford on Monday night. Freshman Alecia Hardy hit a free throw with 28 seconds left to give Charleston Southern the lead, but Radford’s Ayana Avery knocked down a 3-pointer with eight ticks remaining to give the Highlanders the win.

Senior forward Natasha Lebedeva led the way against Radford with 15 points and five rebounds while redshirt-sophomore Alyssa Mann added 11 points and six assists in the contest.

Winston-Salem native Tatum Jarvis leads Charleston Southern with 11.3 points per game in just 19.2 minutes per game. The sophomore scored in double figures in both meetings with HPU last season. Junior Monique Maximilien leads the squad inside with 6.1 rebounds and 1.0 block per contest. Senior Alise Karlsone is the team’s main outside threat knocking down 43.5 percent of her 3-point attempts on the year.

Despite carrying a 3-9 record the Buccaneers are outscoring their opponents by 1.7 points per game. However, that will come at a slow pace as CSU scores 62.9 points and allows just 61.2 a night.

The team was picked to finish last in the conference, but has already proven to be a threat despite losing its first four league games. Outside of its 29-point loss to Winthrop, CSU has lost its other three Big South battles by 15 points combined.

Panther Notes:
• The Panthers lead the all-time series with the Buccaneers by a 22-12 margin. HPU split its two games against Charleston Southern last season with both teams picking up the win on the road. CSU is the last team to earn a road win in the Millis Center when it shocked HPU with a 56-53 win.

• Stacia Robertson has been stuffing the stat sheet like no other player in the country, literally. The redshirt-senior entered the Liberty game as the only player in the country to average at least 10 points, 10 rebounds, three blocks and three steals per contest. She is just four rebounds and two steals below that pace and is averaging 9.7 rebounds and 2.9 steals per outing.

• Kaylah Keys and Stacia Robertson form the highest-scoring tandem in the Big South. The inside-outside duo is averaging 30.5 points a game. Keys leads the league with 15.7 PPG while Robertson is fourth with 14.8.

• Kaylah Keys has posted 20 or more points 14 times in just 25 career Big South regular season contests. She has scored in double figures in all but one of her 25 Big South games and is averaging 19.6 points per conference game in her career.

• Behind forwards Stacia Robertson and DeAnneisha Jackson, HPU sits at 29th in the nation with 5.2 blocked shots a game. Duke leads the nation with 7.4/g.

• The Panthers are forcing 17.2 turnovers per game and are 5-1 when they force 17 or more. Charleston Southern is averaging 22.2 turnovers per contest, which bodes well for HPU.