HPU Men’s Basketball Battles Arkansas-Pine Bluff Saturday

HONOLULU – The High Point University men’s basketball team (1-0) plays the second of three games in the Outrigger Resorts Rainbow Classic Saturday vs. Arkansas-Pine Bluff inside the Stan Sheriff Center.

Tip-off is set for 10 p.m. (ET). HighPointPanthers.com will provide streaming audio coverage of Saturday’s contest versus the Golden Lions. Evan Lepler will have the call on the High Point Panthers Radio Network. Click the “Live Audio – MBB” link under the Fan Zone tab on HighPointPanthers.com to listen to Lepler’s call of the game.

The Panthers opened the Rainbow Classic with an exhilarating 100-99 victory over Bakersfield in four overtimes on Friday night. Trailing 99-98 with eight seconds left in 4OT, Brian Richardson stole a CSUB inbounds pass and dished a perfect pass to Tarique Thompson to send HPU home with the win.

The Panthers faced deficits late in each of the four overtime sessions but had different players step up and hit big shots throughout the night. The 4OT marathon marked was the longest game in the HPU Division I era and featured an incredible 29 ties and 24 lead changes. To put things in perspective, there were just two 4OT games in Division I college basketball during the entire 2013-14 season. VMI won at Gardner-Webb (108-104, 2/15/14) and Arkansas State won at UALR (116-114, 3/14/14).

Senior guard Devante Wallace exploded for a career-high 32 points (11-17 FG) on the night and connected on 7-of-11 3-point attempts to lead HPU. The Baltimore, Md., native hit 4-of-6 triples in the overtime sessions, including two huge 3-pointers to keep HPU alive late in overtime No. 3. After scoring 29 total points in 2013-14, Thompson notched 19 points on 5-of-8 shooting in Friday’s win. Thompson also grabbed a team-high seven rebounds.

A LOOK AT THE GOLDEN LIONS (0-1)
Arkansas-Pine Bluff returns nine letter winners and three starters from a 2013-14 squad that posted a 13-18 record, including an 11-7 mark in the SWAC. APB was picked to finish fourth out of 10 teams in the SWAC in the league’s 2014-15 preseason poll. The Bluff features preseason All-SWAC second team selection Marcel Mosely, who led the team with 13.5 ppg and shot 38.5 percent from downtown in 2013-14. Mosely posted 18 points (5-11 FG) in the Golden Lions’ 85-57 loss to Hawai’i Friday at the Stan Sheriff Center.

HISTORY vs. ARKANSAS-PINE BLUFF
Saturday’s game will mark the first-ever matchup between High Point and Arkansas-Pine Bluff in men’s basketball.

HISTORY vs. SWAC OPPONENTS
HPU is 1-0 all-time against current members of the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC). The Panthers defeated Alabama State, 92-64, way back in the NAIA days on Dec. 21, 1950, in High Point.

UP NEXT
HPU wraps up the Outrigger Resorts Rainbow Classic against host Hawai’i on Tuesday (Nov. 18) at 4:59 a.m. The contest vs. the Rainbow Warriors will be broadcast live on ESPN2 as part of ESPN’s 24-hour College Hoops Tip-Off Marathon.

100-POINT MAGIC
The Panthers’ 100-point effort against Bakersfield Friday marked the 85th time in program history HPU has posted 100 points in a game. HPU is 80-5 all-time in those contests, including a perfect 13-0 mark in the DI era. HPU has won its last 33 games when it scores 100 or more. Prior to Friday’s game, the Panthers last posted 100+ points on Nov. 21, 2009 vs. Hampton-Sydney (W, 100-74). The last 100-point effort against a DI opponent came in a 109-92 win over VMI on Feb. 24, 2007.

OPENING WITH A BANG
With the victory over Bakersfield Friday, HPU is now 65-23 all-time in season openers, including an 9-7 mark in the Division I era. The Panthers are now 7-3 all-time in neutral site openers, including a 2-2 Division I mark. HPU has now won five of its last six season debuts.

ROAD WARRIORS
The Panthers begin the regular season with six of their first seven games away from the Millis Center. HPU has not opened the season with that many road/neutral site contests since 2002-03, when HPU played its first eight contests away from the Millis Center.

NATIONAL TV APPEARANCES
The Panthers’ game at Hawai’i on Nov. 18 (4:59 a.m.) will be televised live on ESPN2 as part of ESPN’s 24-hour College Hoops Tip-Off Marathon. In addition to that game, HPU will play at least three additional games on the ESPN Family of Networks in 2014-15. The Panthers will play at Ohio State on ESPNU Dec. 10 (7 p.m.) and will face off with Longwood (Jan. 19) and Radford (Feb. 3) inside the Millis Center on ESPN3. In addition, the Big South games vs. Charleston Southern (Jan. 8) and at Radford (Jan. 22), Coastal Carolina (Feb. 6) and UNC Asheville (Feb. 26) are candidates to be picked up by ESPNU.