HPU Men’s Basketball Muscles Past Western Carolina, 75-69

• The Panthers held a potent WCU offense to just 33.3 percent shooting (23-69)
• Redshirt-senior John Brown led High Point with a game-high 20 points and nine rebounds
• HPU is 21-2 in its past 23 home games (.913)

HIGH POINT, N.C. – The High Point University men’s basketball team (3-1) used a strong defensive effort Saturday night to power past Western Carolina, 75-69, inside the Millis Center.

The Panthers tamed a potent Catamount offense that entered the game averaging 81.0 points per game. HPU held WCU to just 33.3 percent shooting (23-69), including a paltry 18.2 percent (6-33) from beyond the arc.

Panther guards also did an excellent job of containing WCU leading scorer Mike Brown. The senior entered the game averaging 26.0 points per contest but tallied just 14 points on 3-of-13 shooting Saturday (0-4 3pt FG).

HPU led for 36:38 of the game’s 40 minutes and although Western Carolina kept it close late, the Catamounts could not move closer than four (71-67).

“This was a good team win. I’d love to have been able to stretch the lead out in the second half, but we guarded well and limited a very good scoring basketball team,” head coach Scott Cherry said. “We didn’t make shots, but we still won the game, so I feel good about that. We have some things to work on, particularly on the defensive glass, but we’ll take this victory and move on to Georgia.”

High Point had its own shooting woes Saturday, making just 8.3 percent (1-12) of its 3-point attempts. But the Panthers hit 54.3 percent (25-46) of their shots inside the arc and converted 22-of-24 free throw attempts (.917).

The Purple & White also held a sizable 42-28 edge in points in the paint and won the bench battle, 24-20.

Redshirt-senior John Brown reached the 20-point plateau for the third-straight contest, notching a game-high 20 points while chipping in nine rebounds and three assists in 33 minutes.

Senior forward Lorenzo Cugini added 13 points and seven rebounds, while sophomore guard Austin White played his best game of the season thus far with 12 points (4-6 FG) and two assists. White pestered WCU’s Brown defensively for much of the contest.

Junior forward Tarique Thompson added eight points and three rebounds, and fellow junior Anthony Lindauer tallied a career-best eight rebounds to go along with six points, two assists and two steals.

High Point jumped out to a 14-10 lead and extended the advantage to seven (21-14) on a 3-pointer from Lorenzo Cugini at the 11:04 mark of the opening half. Lindauer hit a jumper to make it 29-20 with 8:41 to go in the stanza and the Panthers got it to 11 (37-26) on a lay-in from junior guard Jorge Perez-Laham at the 4:02 mark.

HPU led by that margin (45-34) at the half.

The Panthers opened the second stanza on a 6-0 run and took their largest lead of the game (51-34) with 18:06 to go in the game. A jumper from White kept the Purple & White up 15 (59-44) with 12:33 remaining and a ferocious alley-oop slammer from Brown off a good feed from Haiishen McIntyre gave HPU a 61-47 advantage at the 11:27 mark.

The WCU zone got to the Panthers down the stretch and HPU hit just two more field goals for the remainder of the game. But HPU also played strong defense during that period and the Catamounts couldn’t cut get closer than four (71-67) for the remainder of the contest.

With the victory, HPU improves to 21-2 (.913) in its last 23 home games.

High Point now heads south to Athens, Ga., for a Thanksgiving eve tilt with SEC foe Georgia on Wednesday, Nov. 25 (5 p.m.). The game will be televsied nationally on ESPNU. In addition, pre-game coverage on the High Point Panthers Radio Network will begin at 4:30 p.m.