HPU Women’s Basketball Outlasted by No. 11 Duke in 77-50 Setback

• Junior Emma Bockrath paced the Panthers with 21 points, 10 rebounds and five steals on the night – her third double-double in as many games.
• Sophomore Camryn Brown canned three trifectas en route to a nine-point outing.
• High Point returns home on Tuesday to take on Barton College at 5:00 p.m. in the Millis Center.

DURHAM, N.C. – The High Point University women’s basketball team trailed by eight midway through the third quarter before falling 77-50 at No. 11 Duke on Thursday night in Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Free throws from junior Emma Bockrath cut the Duke lead to eight, 45-37, with 5:43 left in the third, but Duke responded with a 16-0 run and controlled the contest the rest of the way.

Bockrath led the Panthers (1-2) with 21 points – marking the eighth 20-point game of her career. Meanwhile, redshirt-senior Lexie Brown paced the Blue Devils (2-0) with 24 points.

“I’m just really proud of our kids coming into Cameron Indoor and playing hard,” head coach DeUnna Hendrix said. “Hopefully our kids can remember this experience playing a very good Duke basketball team. I asked our team to slow it up and little bit more than we are used to and to work it in the halfcourt and I thought we had pretty good looks throughout. Defensively, when we were fresh, we were pretty good. But when you get tired, the mind is the first thing to go and I think we fatigued in the second half.”

Bockrath did it all for the Purple & White posting a team-high in rebounds (10) and steals (five) while playing all but two in the contest. The double-double gives the Ohio native seven for her career and three already this season in three tries.

Like Bockrath, sophomore Camryn Brown canned three three-pointers while tallying a nine-point performance at the point.

HPU limited the Duke to just 1-of-8 shooting from beyond the arc, but couldn’t overcome the size disadvantage losing the rebounding battle (46-26) and being outscored in the paint 50-8. All that came despite sophomore Olivia VanSlooten equaling her career high with two blocks while pulling down four rebounds.

Off the bench, senior Kat Harris provided an early spark with five first-quarter points while junior Lindsey Edwards added seven points in her fifth career start.

Overall, Duke outshot the Panthers 50.0 percent to 30.2 overall despite HPU shooting much better from three-point land (6-of-22). Similarly, the Blue Devils enjoyed an advantage at the charity stripe going 20-of-28 while HPU shot 12-of-19 with Bockrath knocking down 8-of-10 from the line.

Both teams started hot as the Blue Devils held a 13-12 at the first media timeout. Bockrath gave HPU its first tie with a three-pointer at the 3:23 mark (15-15) and then again with a jumper at 2:54 (17-17).

However, Duke used nine points from Brown to anchor a 15-5 run to builds its first double-digit lead of the night 32-22 with 7:08 left in the half. The pace slowed considerably from there as Duke entered the break up 39-28.

After the break, HPU used a three-pointer from Brown and four points from Bockrath to pull within eight, 45-37, with 5:43 left in the third. But the Blue Devils responded with a 16-0 run over the next five-plus minutes to build a 23-point lead (61-37) before Brown bombed in a long-range trifecta at the buzzer.

In the final 10 minutes of play, High Point couldn’t get any closer than 21 falling 77-50 on the night.

The Purple & White return to the friendly confines of the Millis Center on Tuesday at 5:00 p.m. to host Barton College.