HIGH POINT, N.C. – The High Point University men’s basketball team released its 2016-17 Big South schedule Thursday, which includes marquee home matchups with Winthrop and UNC Asheville.
HPU will aim to claim its fifth-consecutive Big South regular season title in 2016-17. High Point is one of just four Div. I programs out of 351 to claim four-straight regular season league titles. The prestigious list also includes Kansas, Gonzaga and Stephen F. Austin.
HPU opens its league slate Dec. 29, when the Panthers travel to Boiling Springs, N.C. to take on the Gardner-Webb Runnin’ Bulldogs.
The Purple & White will then host a New Year’s Eve contest for the third-straight season, battling Longwood inside the Millis Center on Dec. 31.
HPU remains at home for an important matchup with perennial league power Winthrop on Jan. 4. The Panthers knocked off the Eagles, 87-85, this past February before a sold out Millis Center crowd on ESPNU.
From there, High Point hits the road for a tilt with UNC Asheville on Jan. 7, before returning home to the Triad to battle Liberty on Jan. 11.
HPU also will face off with Presbyterian College in the Millis Center on Jan. 14, then play back-to-back road contests at Campbell (Jan. 19) and Radford (Jan. 21).
After a home contest with Charleston Southern on Jan. 26, HPU again embarks on a two game road swing at Winthrop (Jan. 28) and Longwood (Feb. 1).
The Panthers get UNC Asheville at home on Feb. 4 before returning the Presbyterian game in Clinton, S.C., on Feb. 9.
HPU hosts Radford on Feb. 11, then wraps up road play with contests at Liberty (Feb. 14) and Charleston Southern (Feb. 18).
The Panthers play their final two league games inside the Millis Center, culminating the schedule with home contests against Campbell (Feb. 23) and Gardner-Webb (Feb. 25).
The Big South Championship will take on a different format in 2017. The first round games (Feb. 28) will be held at campus sites. Then, the tournament’s No. 1 overall seed will host quarterfinal and semifinal action on March 2 and 3.
If the top seed is upset, the tournament will be re-seeded, and the highest remaining seed will host the championship game on March 5.
Big South televised games will be released at a later date.
About the Panthers: The High Point University men’s basketball team is coming off another record-breaking season in 2015-16 that saw the Panthers set a new Div. I program record for Big South road wins (7) while tying the school record for overall league wins (13). The Panthers won 21 games overall, marking the first time HPU had won 20+ games in back-to-back seasons since 1994-95. The Panthers advanced to the NIT for the second time in three years and made their fourth-consecutive postseason appearance overall. HPU is the winningest Big South program over the past four years and is one of just four schools nationally to have won a regular season conference title in each of the last four campaigns (Gonzaga, Kansas, Stephen F. Austin).