High Point MBB Travels to Western Carolina Tuesday

WHEN: Tuesday, Dec. 19 | 7 p.m.
WHERE: Cullowhee, N.C. | Ramsey Center (7,826)
RECORDS: High Point (4-6) | Western Carolina (4-7)
SERIES RECORD: 64th meeting, High Point leads, 43-20
LIVE STATS: Click here
VIDEO: ESPN3
LIVE AUDIO: High Point Panthers Radio Network
GAME NOTES: Click here

HIGH POINT, N.C. — The High Point University men’s basketball team (4-6) travels to Cullowhee, N.C., to take on Western Carolina on Tuesday night (Dec. 19). Tip-off at the Ramsey Center is set for 7 p.m.

Tuesday’s game is set to broadcast on ESPN3. Kevin Burke will be back on the call on the High Point Panthers Radio Network on Tuesday, with pre-game coverage beginning approximately at 6:30 p.m.

PAW PRINTS
• This will be the 64th meeting all-time between the programs. HPU leads the series, 43-20. The two teams will play a year to the day from their last meeting, a 70-65 Catamount win. Before that setback, the Panthers had won the previous six contests in the series.
• High Point is coming off a 70-57 loss against Wofford in the Mountain Invitational on Dec. 17 at the U.S. Cellular Center in Asheville. Junior Andre Fox had a team-high 13 points and seven rebounds, while sophomore Brandonn Kamga added 12 points. Sophomore Jahaad Proctor had 11 points in his first contest after missing five games due to an injury.
• Against Toccoa Falls on Dec. 10, the Panthers’ 110 points scored were tied for the fifth-most in HPU’s Division I history. HPU shot 64.3 percent from the field, which is the fourth-best shooting percentage performance. The 45 field goals made were fourth-best and the 26 assists dished out were tied for fifth-most.
• With every player who saw action against Toccoa Falls recording at least six points and one rebound, the Panthers had every player score and grab a rebound in two out of three games (Johnson & Wales was the other occurrence). The previous time the Panthers had every player who saw action score was an 88-80 win over Longwood on Feb. 18, 2016 in Farmville, Va.
• Junior Andre Fox tallied 24 points at College of Charleston and has scored 20 or more points in five of 10 games this season after posting six 20+ point games in 2016-17. Fox is the first Panther to tally 20 or more points in five games in an eight-game stretch since John Brown scored 20-plus in six of seven games from Jan. 2-Feb. 3, 2016.
• Fox is currently third in the Big South with 17.1 points per game, third in field goal percentage at 51.5 percent and sixth in the conference with a 87.2 free throw percentage.

HISTORY vs. WESTERN CAROLINA
This will be the 64th meeting between the two programs, who had a long-time series during the schools’ NAIA days. The Catamounts won last year’s meeting 70-65 in Cullowhee on Dec. 19, 2016 to break the Panthers’ six-game win streak in the series. Tarique Thompson led High Point with 14 points and a career-high 15 rebounds, while Ricky Madison finished with 13 points.

A LOOK AT THE CATAMOUNTS (4-7)
Western Carolina comes into the game with a 4-7 record after defeating UNC Asheville, 76-72, in the second game of the Mountain Invitational Dec. 17 at the U.S. Cellular Center in Asheville. The Catamounts have five players averaging eight or more points per game with Deriece Parks leading the team with 11.2 points per contest. Marcus Thomas and Mike Mius led the Catamounts with 21 and 19 points, respectively, to lead WCU to the win over UNC Asheville.

HISTORY vs. SOCON OPPONENTS
The Panthers are 74-53 (.583) all-time against current members of the Southern Conference. The Panthers most common opponents are Western Carolina (40-23), VMI (13-10) and Wofford (9-11). In addition to the long-time series with WCU during the NAIA days, HPU and VMI clashed often over the past decade during VMI’s tenure in the Big South. This season, the Panthers fell to The Citadel, 79-77, on Nov. 18 at the Millis Center and to Wofford, 70-57, on Dec. 17 at the U.S. Cellular Center in Asheville as part of the Mountain Invitational.

NEXT UP
The Panthers is off for an 11-day stretch for the holidays and will start Big South play on Dec. 30 at Winthrop at 2 p.m.