HIGH POINT, N.C. — The High Point University men’s basketball team rallied from a 14-point deficit to beat Campbell 63-62 on Saturday at the Millis Center. The Panthers set a program record with their 12th Big South win of the season. Graduate student Allan Chaney led HPU with 19 points and 11 rebounds.
“This was a huge win, we had a lot of guys step up today and get more points and rebounds than their averages,” said HPU head coach Scott Cherry. “It was important to prove to ourselves that we could win without John Brown and get this momentum going into the conference tournament next week. We don’t know who we’re playing yet but we’ll prepare for a couple teams this week and work on our weaknesses.”
Chaney shot 9-for-13 from the floor and tied his career high with four blocks. It was his sixth double-double of the season. Freshman Adam Weary added 15 points, including the game-winning free throws, and had six rebounds and four assists. Redshirt-senior Corey Law scored a season-high 14 points and had four rebounds and tied his career high with three blocks. Brown missed his first full game since suffering a season-ending injury last week.
Campbell was led by point guard Trey Freeman, who scored 19 points with five rebounds. Junior forward Marvelle Harris scored 14 points with nine rebounds and three blocks and junior guard Darian Hooker scored 12 points.
High Point finished the regular season 17-12 overall and 12-4 in Big South play while Campbell finished at 12-19 and 7-9. High Point won the Big South North Division and tied Charleston Southern (also 12-4) for the best record in the Big South this season.
Down 59-55 with under three minutes to play, junior guard Dejuan McGaughy made a great spin move through the paint to hit a layup. The Panthers got the ball back and Chaney hit a layup to tie the game at 59-59. Campbell’s Reco McCarter hit one-of-two free throws on the Camels’ next trip down the court before High Point was able to come back and take its first lead since the beginning of the game. Chaney hit a contested jumper to make it 61-60.
Freeman hit a jumper to give Campbell a one-point lead back with 39 seconds on the clock, setting up an intense finish. In the half court, Weary took the ball into the paint and drew a foul from Campbell’s Leek Leek. Weary hit both free throws to lift High Point to a 63-62 lead with 17 seconds on the clock. The Panthers’ defense was able to hold Campbell without a shot on its final possession, hanging on for the victory.
Campbell had taken an 11-point lead by halftime after getting 10 offensive rebounds and forcing eight HPU turnovers in the first half. The Panthers went just 3-for-10 from the free-throw line in the first half before going 6-for-8 in the second.
Freeman hit a three-pointer and a jumper in the first minute of the second half to push Campbell’s lead to 14 points (39-25). Campbell led by 14 points again when Harris hit a layup before the Panthers made their comeback.
Down 41-27, High Point scored the next seven points and started a 13-4 run. HPU got Campbell’s lead down to 45-41 on a three-point play by Weary with 12:41 remaining. When Weary hit a three-pointer with 9:12 left, HPU was within a point (49-48), but it took the Panthers more than seven minutes to finally tie it up on Chaney’s jumper.
The Panthers’ 12 league wins eclipsed the 2006-07 season, when HPU went 11-3, for most Big South wins since moving up to NCAA Div. I in 1999-2000. High Point went 13-5 in its last 18 games.
It was Senior Day for Landon Harris, Law, Branimir Mikulic and Jairus Simms, who all started the game.
High Point opens the VisitMyrtleBeach.com Big South Tournament on Thursday at 8 p.m. against either Coastal Carolina or Liberty. Those teams square off on Tuesday at 8 p.m. The entire men’s and women’s tournaments will be held at Coastal Carolina’s HTC Center.