Site: High Point, N.C. (Millis Center)
Score: High Point 80, East Tennessee State 62
Records: HPU: 1-2, ETSU: 1-2
Next HPU Event: Monday, Nov. 18 — at American (Washington, D.C.), 7 p.m.
HIGH POINT, N.C. – Senior Camryn Brown set a new career-best and tied the school record for three-pointers with seven makes from behind the arc to lead the High Point University women’s basketball team to an 80-62 victory over East Tennessee State University on Thursday night (Nov. 14). The win is the first on the year for the Panthers and the first career victory for head coach Chelsea Banbury.
High Point beat its record for most three-pointers attempted in a game it set against Duke, surpassing that mark of 40 by two against ETSU with 42 total attempts from deep. The Panthers connected on 16 of them, the second-best mark in program history, two shy of the record. HPU’s defense was also strong, holding the Bucs to shooting 36.5% from the floor and forcing 20 ETSU turnovers, both season-bests for the Panthers.
“We beat a good team tonight,” Banbury said after the win. “I’m happy with the effort we had and I thought we bounced back well from a pretty defeating loss the other day. We had a good couple days of practice with better effort and our intensity showed on the court. We beat a really good team out there that just beat Liberty and took Tennessee down to the wire so I’m really proud of how we played and the effort we had.”
HPU jumped out to the lead quickly and didn’t look back, never trailing or allowing the Bucs to tie the game up. Brown had six of the game’s first 10 points, part of eight total in the first and 24 in the game. ETSU got the lead down to two points before a 7-0 Panther run brought the lead up to nine points, 15-6. High Point was able to get the lead up to 13 points in the first, and ended the quarter up 10, 25-15, thanks to a triple from Skyler Curran with four seconds left on the clock, part of 17 points in the game for the sophomore.
The Panthers continued to add to their lead in the second quarter, with a 10-2 run to start the frame giving the Purple and White the largest lead of the contest at 35-17. The second quarter was the lowest in scoring of the four, with High Point getting the edge, 17-12 to end the half up 42-27. Brown led all scorers with six points in the second stanza, all from behind the arc, to end the half with 14 points. Classmate Miya Bull was cleaning the glass for the second straight game, collecting eight rebounds in the first half, finishing with a total of 13, one shy of her career-best set against College of Charleston on Sunday.
ETSU tried to claw back in the third quarter and took one point off the deficit after the 10 minutes, trailing by14, 63-49. A large part of the Bucs’ success in the quarter was due to free-throw shooting, as ETSU went a perfect 10-10 from the line in the third quarter, part of a 22-26 free throw effort in the game. Conversely, High Point did not go to the line a single time in the third quarter.
Despite losing the quarter by a point, the Panthers’ maintained a firm hold on the game, with the lead never dropping below 11 points. Brown hit her sixth triple with 3:48 left in the quarter to set a new personal best, and then followed that up with her final trey of the day with 47 seconds remaining to match the school record. Redshirt sophomore Zaria Wright started to heat up in the third quarter, scoring five points in the quarter after a modest three in the first half.
Wright stayed hot in the fourth, scoring seven points to finish the second half with 12 points, the most in the final 20 minutes for any Panther, finishing the game with a career-high 15 points on her birthday. Curran added six in the fourth quarter for the two classmates accounting for 13 of HPU’s 17 in the final frame. Bull picked up three points in the final quarter, a free throw and a layup in the lane after a beautiful pick-and-roll with Brown to finish with 10 points for her second straight double-double, the last points of the contest to give the Panthers an 80-62 victory.
High Point heads up to Virginia next week for a pair of road games. The Panthers American University on Monday (Nov. 18) at 7 p.m. before traveling down the coast to Norfolk State for a 6 p.m. matchup on Wednesday (Nov. 20). HPU’s next home game isn’t until Dec. 2 when Davidson comes to town for some Monday-night hoops at Millis.