• With the setback, HPU now sits in a seven-way tie for first place in the Big South
• The Panthers led 56-49 with 4:14 to go but were outscored 16-4 by CCU down the stretch
• Adam Weary (19 points) and John Brown (18 points) paced HPU offensively
CONWAY, S.C. – The High Point University men’s basketball team (17-7, 8-4) held a seven-point lead with four minutes to play but could not withstand a late Coastal Carolina run as the host Chanticleers powered past the Panthers, 65-60, on Friday night inside the HTC Center.
HPU led 56-49 with 4:14 to play, but missed its final seven shots as Coastal Carolina (17-7, 8-4) closed the game on a 16-4 run.
With the setback, HPU is now part of a seven-way tie for first place in the Big South with an 8-4 league mark.
The Panthers held advantages over the Chanticleers in field goal percentage (.396-.367) and 3-point field goal percentage (.429-.294) but Coastal enjoyed a +24 (47-23) edge on the glass, including a 27-9 advantage in the second half. The Chanticleers grabbed 17 offensive rebounds that led to a 27-4 edge for CCU in second chance points.
Junior Adam Weary led the Panthers with 19 points (7-14 FG) while redshirt-junior John Brown tallied 18 points, four rebounds, three assists and three steals. Redshirt-senior Brian Richardson added nine points and nine assists in 26 minutes on the floor.
“We just didn’t do what we did in the first half in the second,” head coach Scott Cherry said. “You have to put two halves together against a good basketball team like Coastal and we haven’t done that over the past two games. There were too many missed opportunities and that’s frustrating. We have to get back to work and focus on details and the little things that really matter.”
Coastal scored six of the first nine points of the game before HPU put together a 10-0 run over a five-minute stretch midway through the half. That surge gave the Panthers an 18-7 lead at the 8:06 mark of the period. The Chanticleers cut it to seven at 26-19 and 28-21, but 3-pointers from Richardson, then Weary kept HPU up 10 on each occasion. The Panthers took a 31-23 lead into the break.
HPU shot 42.9 percent (12-28) in the half and limited CCU to just 33.3 percent (8-24). Weary led the Panthers with 11 points (5-8 FG) in the stanza.
A lay-in from Weary extended the Panther edge to 12 (42-30) at the 14:19 mark of the second half and the Panthers led 47-36 after a 3-pointer from Cugini with 11:42 to play. But from there, Coastal began a steady push to get back in the game. A 13-2 run by the Chanticleers tied the game at 49-49 with 6:49 to go. From there, HPU used a 7-0 run to go up 56-49 with 4:14 to play.
The sequence included a monster alley-oop dunk from Weary to Brown that was featured on Deadspin, SB Nation and earned the No. 4 play on ESPN’s SportsCenter Top Plays.
But from there, Coastal ended the game on a 16-4 run as HPU could not muster a field goal after the Brown jumper that put HPU up seven.
HPU returns home for its annual Blackout contest against rival Winthrop on Feb. 11 at 7 p.m. The game will be broadcast on the Big South Network, with pre-game coverage on the High Point Panthers Radio Network beginning at 6:30 p.m.