Site: Charleston, S.C. (Buccaneer Fieldhouse)
Score: High Point 84, Charleston Southern 70
Records: HPU: 5-10 (3-3 Big South), CSU: 2-12, (0-5 Big South)
Next HPU Event: Saturday, Jan. 18 — at Longwood (Farmville, Va.) 3 p.m.
CHARLESTON, S.C. – Senior Camryn Brown scored a season-high 26 points to help the High Point University women’s basketball team get back to winning ways in Saturday’s (Jan. 11) 84-70 victory over Charleston Southern. Sophomore Skyler Curran joined her as one of four Panthers scoring in double digits, finishing with 19 points and adding 10 rebounds for her second career double-double.
Charleston Southern scored the first four points of the game but High Point answered in a big way, going on a 12-0 run to take the lead. Curran hit a pair from the charity stripe and followed it up with a triple to give the Panthers the lead. Redshirt sophomore Danielle Deoul continued her strong performance from Thursday night and followed suit with a layup and triple to match Curran’s five points and force CSU to take a timeout.
The Buccaneers answered with seven straight but HPU countered right back with seven of its own, six coming from Brown. Junior Chyna McMichel picked up the other point in the run with a free throw, then added a layup and a triple at the buzzer to give the Panthers a 27-15 lead after one. McMichel finished in double digits for the second time in her career, scoring a career-high 12 points.
High Point’s 27 points are tied for the most scored in a single quarter this season, matching the mark set in the opening quarter at N.C. Central in the Panthers’ first road victory of the season. HPU was dialed in all over the floor, shooting 62.5% overall and 42.9% from deep in the quarter while hitting 80% of its shots from the free throw line.
Not to be outdone in the second, the Panthers duplicated their performance from the first quarter and scored 27 more points to lead 54-28 at the break. Charleston Southern scored the first four points of the quarter once again, but this time High Point answered with 14 unanswered, hitting six straight free throws in the run, capped off by a Deoul triple to force another CSU timeout with the Purple and White up 41-19 less than five minutes into the second.
Brown had 13 points in the second quarter for 21 in the first half, with the majority in the second coming after the timeout. Brown hit two triples coming out of the timeout and added a mid-range jumper with two minutes left in the half as part of an 11-4 High Point run to close out the half.
The Panthers shot 47.1% from the floor and 57.1% from three in the second to end the half shooting 54.5% overall and 50% from deep. HPU also made its free throws count in the opening half, going 11-13 in the first 20 minutes for 84.6%, helped by Curran going a perfect 7-7. Brown not only scored a lot, she was efficient as well, going 8-11 in the half for a 72.7% shooting percentage.
Things quieted down in the third quarter, with the two teams only combining for a total of 27 points in the quarter. High Point’s scoring was spread out in the third, with four Panthers scoring at least three points. HPU won the quarter by one point and took a 68-41 lead into the final 10 minutes.
The Buccaneers ended the third by scoring the four of the last six points and scored the first 14 points of the fourth to make it an 18-2 run and cut High Point’s lead to 13. It took almost six minutes for the Panthers to get on the board in the final quarter but Deoul put a stop to CSU’s run with an old-fashioned three-point play, followed by a triple from Curran. Deoul finished with 14 points, matching her career-best from Thursday night.
Charleston Southern kept coming and cut the lead to 10 with under a minute to go. The Panthers hit their free throws down the stretch to keep the lead in double digits and securely out of reach, winning 84-7. Tempers flared a bit at the tail end, with a double technical being assessed to Curran and CSU’s Maya Richards with 11 seconds left on the clock after Richards fouled Brown.
High Point closes out its three-game road trip next Saturday (Jan. 18) with a trip to Longwood. The Panthers then return home on Jan. 21 to host Presbyterian.