• Redshirt-senior Stacia Robertson posted her 10th double-double of the season with 10 points and 11 rebounds – including eight offensive rebounds.
• Sophomore Kaylah Keys led the Panthers with 19 points to go with four assists.
• The Panthers will spend next week on the road with trips to Winthrop on Tuesday and Campbell on Saturday.
HIGH POINT, N.C. – The High Point University women’s basketball team caught fire on the offensive end and ran away from Charleston Southern for a 92-60 triumph in the Millis Center on Saturday night.
The Panthers (15-9, 11-4) hit a season best 12 3-pointers and got points from 12 different players while holding the Buccaneers (5-18, 1-13) to 33 percent shooting.
“Tonight was fun and we haven’t had fun in four or five games,” head coach DeUnna Hendrix said. “It was good to have a game like this and build confidence after not playing well lately. We got back to playing High Point basketball and that was good.”
Sophomore Kaylah Keys led the Panthers with 19 points, four steals and four assists. Keys hit three 3-pointers while redshirt-senior Lindsay Puckett hit three shots from beyond the arc en route to a 15-point outing.
Redshirt-senior Stacia Robertson
Freshman Kat Harris led the reserves with 12 points on 6-of-7 shooting from the charity stripe. Sophomore DeAnneisha Jackson added seven points and nine rebounds while sophomore Maja Michalska and junior Lydia Harvey knocked down two trifectas apiece.
“We have a lot of talent on our bench,” Hendrix said. “Those kids would be playing more for just about any team in the league, but when we’re trying to get a rotation and a flow it’s hard to get everyone minutes.”
The Purple & White registered a 37-23 advantage in bench points and had a +14 (49-35) margin in rebounding. Due in large part to Robertson’s eight offensive rebounds, the Panthers had 28 second-chance points on the night.
Robertson opened the scoring with a put back on the first possession of the game, but the Buccaneers scored the next six to take a 6-2 lead with 90 seconds gone off of the clock. The Panthers responded with an 11-2 run behind seven points from Keys to build a 13-8 lead (14:40).
CSU bounced right back with a 9-3 spurt of its own to retake the lead when Alyssa Mann knocked down an elbow jumper (17-16, 11:40). After the teams traded baskets, Mann extended the Bucs’ lead to four points at 22-18 with a 3-pointer from the top of the key (11:01). However, HPU came right back as layups by Phelps and Robertson evened the score at 22-22 with 9:25 left in the half.
The Purple & White’s run grew to 8-0 as Phelps and Robertson converted on put backs that put the team up 26-22 with 8:22 until the break. The teams traded baskets before Michalska drilled consecutive triples to stretch the Panthers’ lead out to seven points at 36-29 with 4:30 on the clock.
On the next two offensive trips, Keys and Phelps grabbed rebounds and earned put backs to extend HPU’s lead to 11 points (40-29, 3:30). Richard went coast-to-coast for a layup and split a trip to the line before Keys knocked down a mid-range jumper to make it a 12-0 run for the Panthers (45-29, 1:21). The Bucs halted the run with a pair of free throws from Alise Karlsone, but Puckett hit a 3-pointer before the buzzer to send HPU to the locker room up 50-31.
Keys opened the second half the way Puckett closed the first and drilled a 3-pointer to extend HPU’s lead to 22 (53-31, 19:42). The Purple & White didn’t hit another shot for the next three minutes, but CSU could only cut the deficit to 20 points before Puckett hit a baseline jumper to make it 55-33 with 16:30 to play.
Puckett hit another jumper as HPU’s lead swelled to 24 points at 57-33 (15:48). The Bucs were able to get the lead down to 18 with an 8-2 run capped by a Nayla Long free throw with 10:20 remaining. However, Keys hit a 3-pointer and junior Aariel Allen converted a fast-break layup to put HPU back up by 23 points (69-46, 9:49).
From there the HPU lead ballooned to 34 points when Harvey, Puckett and Harris hit consecutive triples (92-58, 1:00). CSU scored the final two points to reach the 92-60 final score.
The Panthers will be on the road for two games next week as they head to Winthrop on Tuesday, Feb. 7 and Campbell on Saturday, Feb. 14.