Two Score 20 in HPU WBB Sweep of Radford

Site: Radford, Va. (Dedmon Center)
Score: High Point 79, Radford 58
Records: HPU 16-5 (14-2 Big South), RAD 5-10 (5-8 Big South)
Next HPU Event: Friday, February 19, 2021 — vs. Hampton (Millis Center, High Point, N.C.), Time TBA

RADFORD, Va. – The High Point University women’s basketball team secured the sweep over Radford University with a 79-58 victory in the Dedmon Center Saturday afternoon (Feb. 13).

For the second game in a row, HPU had two scorers with 20 points, led on Saturday by freshman Claire Wyatt with a career-high 22 points. Right behind her was junior Skyler Curran with 20 points on the day, with each player connecting from deep four times.

“I’m proud of our girls for finishing our road games 9-1 in conference play,” head coach Chelsea Banbury said after the sweep. “We had another great first half today. Skyler and Claire were excellent all weekend. We can’t wait to get back to the Millis Center to finish up the regular season.”

High Point did its best to replicate yesterday’s start, holding the Highlanders to just nine points in the opening quarter and scoring 30 for back-to-back 30-point opening quarters. Curran and Wyatt dominated the first for the Panthers, with each scoring in double digits in the first 10 minutes. Curran was the only offense for the first two minutes of the game, scoring the first seven points of the game.

HPU’s defense was solid from the beginning as well, holding Radford silent from the floor for the opening three-and-a-half minutes. The hosts did convert a pair of free throws two minutes in, but High Point responded with a 12-2 run thanks to a pair of triples from Wyatt and one from Callie Scheier. The Panthers hit three more treys before the quarter was over, with Wyatt, Curran, and Scheier all hitting again to end the quarter with multiple makes from behind the arc to give HPU a 30-9 lead.

The lead dipped below 20 points briefly at the beginning of the second quarter when Radford strung together a 9-2 run to make it 35-18 two minutes into the frame. Both teams went cold from the floor after that, with a triple from Jenson Edwards being the only field goal for a stretch of four minutes. Edwards ended the drought on either side with a drive to the hoop just inside of three minutes left in the half, and the lid came off the Highlander hoop 30 seconds later with 2:10 left on the clock.

That was the last shot from the floor the Panthers allowed in the half, holding the Radford to just two more free throws to close out the first 20 minutes. High Point’s offense took advantage of its stout defense, ending the half on a 7-2 run to take a 51-24 lead at the break.

It was the third consecutive half the Panthers have scored at least 50 points and was a half that was lopsided in favor of HPU in a big way. High Point shot a lights-out 64.3% in the first half, including a 78.6% mark in the opening quarter, and held Radford to just seven makes on 28 attempts in the first half for a shooting percentage of 25.0%.

A Cydney Johnson three-pointer kicked things off in the second half, but it took almost three minutes for the Panthers to score again, with the hosts scoring six straight in between. Wyatt ended the stretch with back-to-back looks from inside and then drilled her fourth triple of the day to force a timeout with the score 61-32 in favor of HPU. High Point mustered only one more bucket in the final six minutes of the third, a three from Curran with 2:40 on the clock, and Radford found the basket three more times and connected on a trio of free throws to end the quarter on a 9-3 run to make it 64-41 heading to the fourth.

Radford hit the first two field goals of the fourth quarter, both coming from behind the arc to cut High Point’s lead to under 20 points. Curran knocked down her second NBA-range three after that to get to 20 points on the day and Wyatt joined her shortly after on an old-fashioned three-point play with 5:35 to go in the game.

Neither team was able to find the hoop from the floor for the next four minutes with the only scoring coming from six Highlander free throws and one from HPU’s Courtney Meadows. Wyatt ended the drought with an inside cut to set a new career-best with 22 points and the exclamation point was put on the win with a three-pointer from Teegan Pifher in the final minute to secure the 79-56 victory.

High Point returns home to finish out the regular season over the next two weeks, starting with a pair of games against Hampton this Friday (Feb. 19) and Saturday (Feb. 20). The Panthers then finish the regular season with a two-game set against Longwood on Feb. 25-26.