Panthers Men’s Basketball drop final contest of HPU Classic to NDSU

• Sophomore Andre Fox led the Panthers with eight points
• Redshirt-senior Miles Bowman Jr. grabbed a season-high 13 rebounds
• HPU returns to action Friday at Clemson (7 p.m.)

HIGH POINT, N.C. – The High Point University men’s basketball team could not overcome a poor shooting performance Sunday afternoon, falling to North Dakota State by a score of 70-44 inside the Millis Center.

The usually shooting sound Panthers made 28.8 percent (15-52) of their attempts from the floor, marking the lowest field goal percentage for HPU since the team put together a 28.6 percent effort at Wofford in 2013. HPU also committed an uncharacteristic 15 turnovers while NDSU shot 50.9 percent from the floor.

“We didn’t execute what we intended to in our game plan today,” head coach Scott Cherry said. “We couldn’t keep the ball in front of us on defense, gave up a lot of offensive rebounds off missed free throws and made a lot of other mental mistakes. We weren’t going to win trying to go one-on-one against a team of that quality. We didn’t handle adversity the way I’d like, and I’ll take responsibility for that. We are a young team and will learn from this effort.”

Sophomore Andre Fox finished with eight points to lead High Point on the day while senior Anthony Lindauer chipped in with seven points, four assists and three steals. Redshirt-senior Miles Bowman Jr., pulled down a season-high 13 boards for HPU.

High Point jumped out to a 5-2 lead on a bucket by sophomore Ricky Madison and a 3-pointer from Lindauer but North Dakota State took advantage of the Panthers shooting woes early in the game to run off 15-straight points and go up 17-5.

HPU slowly chipped into the Bison lead and twice cut the deficit down to just four points, the second time coming with three minutes left in the half. NDSU came back to score the final eight points of the second half to go into halftime with a 36-24 lead.

The Bison extended their run from the end of the first half, outscoring HPU 17-2 to push their lead to 53-26. The NDSU lead would grow to 64-31, before High Point closed the game on a 14-6 run.

High Point returns to action following Thanksgiving when the Panthers head south to take on the Clemson Tigers in Clemson, S.C., on Friday, Nov. 25. The game is HPU’s second against an ACC foe this season. Tip time is set for 7 p.m. on ACC Network Extra/ESPN3.