HPU Women’s Hoops Entertains Radford On Saturday

HIGH POINT, N.C. – The High Point University women’s basketball team takes the Millis Center floor on Saturday against Radford at 2:00 p.m. looking for a 2-0 start in Big South play.

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The Panthers (2-6, 1-0) kicked off their conference season with a 79-68 win over Longwood on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the Highlanders (3-2, 0-0) knocked off Davidson 79-68 on Wednesday.

LAST TIME OUT
The Purple & White used a 24-9 run at the beginning of the third quarter to extend a 34-30 halftime edge to a 58-39 advantage. From there, the squad held on for its 79-68 triumph as junior Kaylah Keys hit eight straight free throws to close out the game and her 26-point outing. Freshmen Lindsey Edwards (18 points) and Shea Morgan (12 points) chipped in with season-highs as the team combined for 21 assists on 30 field goals.

KEY’S CLIMB
• Junior Kaylah Keys is sitting at sixth in HPU’s Division I scoring list with 1,160 career points. She needs 40 points to tie Cheyenne Parker for fifth on the list.
• The Southaven, Miss. native has drilled 151 shots from beyond the arc in her career and needs 78 more to top HPU’s career list.
• The guard is sixth in the Panthers’ Division I free throws made list with 237 made free throws.

YOUTH MOVEMENT
• The team’s seven freshmen are logging 62 percent of the team’s minutes and are scoring 52 percent of HPU points and grabbing 66 percent of the squad’s steals this season.
• At the beginning of the season, the quartet of DeUnna Hendrix, Jenna Burkett, Laura Harper and Lori Drake had a combined age of 120 years. That is the second youngest group in Division I among schools that responded to a Belmont University questionnaire. Only Houston Baptist’s staff (119 years) combined for a younger age.

PANTHER NOTES
• Junior Kaylah Keys has experienced great success against the Highlanders and is averaging 19.5 points, 3.5 assists and 2.3 assists in those four contests.
• HPU is 34-9 at home under head coach DeUnna Hendrix and 24-6 in Big South play in that same time period.
• Keys is averaging 25.0 ppg at home and shooting 45.8 percent on the friendly Millis Center rims.
• Freshman Lindsey Edwards has scored 12.0 ppg in home contests compared to 6.8 ppg when playing outside of the Millis Center.

SCOUTING RADFORD
• The Highlanders and Panthers tied for second in the Big South standings last season at 14-6. This year, Radford was picked to finish third while HPU was tabbed for fourth.
• Like HPU, Radford is coming off a 79-68 win with its victory coming against Davidson. The Highlanders offense featured five players scoring in double figures led by 15 points from freshman Jen Falconer who hit 4-of-4 from beyond the arc.
• Sophomore forwards Jayda Worthy and Janayla White are combining for 23.4 ppg and 15.8 rpg.
• The team’s leader is senior guard Aisha Foy. She is averaging 11.4 points and is joined by senior Gaby Gilmore and Falconer in the starting backcourt.
• HPU will have the depth advantage as Radford has four players logging more than 24 minutes.
• Radford has three freshmen and three sophomores averaging over 10 minutes per game while HPU has six freshmen and a sophomore doing the same.

ALL-TIME SERIES AGAINST THE HIGHLANDERS
High Point owns a 24-16 lead in the 40 previous meetings between the two programs overall and a 19-13 advantage in Big South contests.

LAST TIME THEY MET
The two teams split their head-to-head meetings last season en route to tying for second in the Big South standings. Radford earned a 61-58 last-second win at home before HPU trounced the Highlanders on senior day by a score of 83-63. Keys led the Panthers with 28 points on 4-of-4 3-point shooting against Radford in the Millis Center.

NEXT UP
The Purple & White gets next week off for finals before hosting VCU on Dec. 16 and traveling to Elon on Dec. 19 before taking off for Christmas break.