HIGH POINT, N.C. – The High Point University women’s basketball team will welcome Charleston Southern to the Millis Center on Saturday at 7 p.m.
The Panthers (14-9,10-4) will be looking to bounce back from its 79-58 setback at Presbyterian on Thursday night. Meanwhile, the Buccaneers (5-17, 1-13) are aiming to spring an upset.
Saturday is also HPU’s ‘Think Pink’ game and fans in attendance are encouraged to wear pink to the game.
Last Time Out:
The Blue Hose jumped out to an early 6-0 lead on Thursday night and never let the Panthers take the lead en route to a 79-58 win. As it has done to many teams this season in the Templeton Center, Presbyterian’s defense held HPU’s offense in check throughout the contest.
The Purple & White shot 38.3 percent from the floor and were forced into 22 turnovers. The Blue Hose, on the other hand, executed at a high level and shot 58 percent from the floor while earning a 42-14 advantage in points in the paint. The team was led by redshirt-junior Keyonna Allen who posted 22 points on 10-of-11 shooting.
Redshirt-senior Stacia Robertson led the Panthers with 14 points, eight rebounds, four blocks and three assists. Sophomore Kaylah Keys helped HPU’s bench outscore PC’s reserves 15-11 with 13 points on the strength of three 3-pointers.
Senior Latice Phelps chipped in with 11 points, six rebounds and a team-high three steals. Redshirt-senior Lindsay Puckett gave the Purple & White four players in double figures with 11 points on 3-of-10 shooting from beyond the arc.
The Panthers were able to make a run and cut the Presbyterian lead down to three before halftime. However, PC came out of the locker room hot with a 9-2 run to build a 14-point lead. HPU could never get closer than seven points the rest of the way.
The Opponent:
Charleston Southern went winless in its first trip around the conference, but has shown improvement in the second half of league play. The Buccaneers earned their first conference win on Monday with a 70-57 triumph over UNC Asheville. The team, then, lost 61-47 at Campbell this weekend, but was only trailing by five at the half.
Sophomore Tatum Jarvis is averaging 18 points per game this week after pouring in 29 points against Asheville. The Winston-Salem, N.C. native is the team’s leading scorer with 12.9 ppg this year.
Redshirt-sophomore Alyssa Mann has also had a good week posting 17 points against the Bulldogs and 15 points against the Camels. Mann has raised her scoring average to 9.0 ppg and with 10 assists this week she now leads the team with 3.2 per contest.
Junior Monique Maximilien leads the team with 6.1 rebounds per game and is the only player on the squad pulling down more than five per outing. Overall the Bucs are 10th in the Big South in rebounding with a -2.3 margin a night.
Jarvis leads the team with 33 made 3-pointers and CSU is second in the conference with 5.32 3-pointer per game. However, the team is shooting 28 percent from beyond the arc, which is good for 10th in the league.
Defense is a source of concern for the Bucs. The team allows opponents to hit 43.6 percent overall and 32.5 percent from 3-point land. Both of those numbers are near the bottom of the Big South.
Panther Notes:
• The Panthers have a 23-12 advantage in the all-time series with the Buccaneers.
• In the first meeting of the year, the Purple & White earned a 77-44 win in the Buc Dome. Redshirt-senior Stacia Robertson posted 24 points and six rebounds along with five blocks, four steals and four assists while hitting all eight of her shots.
• The HPU offense is shooting at a record pace this year. The team enters the game hitting 41.8 percent of its shots. The Panthers lead the Big South and are on pace to best the program record of 41.3 set during the 2010-11 season.
• High Point hasn’t lost back-to-back league games since taking consecutive road losses at Gardner-Webb and Presbyterian on Feb. 21 and Feb. 23, 2013. The team has gone 34 straight conference games without suffering two straight loses.
• Stacia Robertson ranks in the top 30 nationally in field goal percentage (12th, .574), blocks (12th, 3.45) and steals (27th, 2.79). The forward is also second in the Big South – 47th in the nation – in rebounding (9.9 rebs/g) and blocks, and is third in scoring.
• Kaylah Keys has hit at least one 3-pointer in 19-of-23 games this season. She is second in the Big South in 3-pointers made (49).
• HPU is 41-12 (.774) in the Millis Center since the beginning of the 2011-12 season including a 10-1 record at home this season.
Next Up:
The Panthers will be on the road for two games next week. The first contest will be at Winthrop on Tuesday before the team heads to Campbell for a Valentine’s Day clash with the Camels on Saturday.