March 9. 2024
The High Point women’s basketball team came up short to Presbyterian, 59-50, in the semifinals of the 2024 Hercules Tires Big South conference tournament on Saturday night despite a team-high 14 points from Faith Price and 12 from Nakyah Terrell.
Presbyterian got off to a hot start, outscoring the Panthers 8-2 within the game’s first three minutes of action.
The Panthers found their shot as Price drained a three-pointer to cut the team’s early deficit.
After trailing by double-digits, 15-5, Lauren Bevis drained a three-pointer to bring Presbyterian’s lead to seven points.
Callie Scheier appeared to injure her ankle after hitting a contested jumper with the shot clock winding down.
Presbyterian knocked down a shot before the first-quarter buzzer sounded to give Presbyterian a 22-10 lead at the end of the first ten minutes.
Bukky Akinsola got the team going to start the second quarter as she made High Point’s third three-pointer of the game.
Terrell was attacking and finishing at the basket the entire quarter as she brought Presbyterian’s lead down to two points, 26-24, with 3:39 remaining in the second quarter.
Scheier re-entered the game and gave HPU its first lead of the game 27-26, after knocking down a triple.
Despite outsourcing Presbyterian 17-8 in the second quarter, the Panthers trailed heading into halftime, 30-27.
Terrell’s hot hand in the first half continued into the second as she continued to drive and finish at the basket, recording the team’s first points of the second half and her 10th point in the game.
Faith Price tied up the game at 37 with back-to-back possessions hitting a three-pointer.
Presbyterian closed out the third quarter on a 6-0 scoring run as High Point trailed heading into the fourth quarter, 43-37.
After shooting a poor 1-8 from the floor, Bevis rattled home a clutch and-one jumper for her second bucket of the game.
Price’s shooting prowess continued as Scheier found her in the corner for three points to close Presbyterian’s lead to within single-digits, 53-44, with 3:08 to play.
With tears nearly running down her eyes and 28 seconds left to play, Bevis knocked down a huge three-pointer and a foul for the four-point play to cut High Point’s deficit to seven points, 57-50.
The surge from HPU ultimately would not be enough as Presbyterian came out on top, 59-50, to advance to the championship game of the Hercules Tires Big South conference tournament.
The Panthers shot a poor 33.3 percent from the court overall, and 32 percent from the three-point line including 22.2 percent from beyond the arc in the fourth quarter.
“This one hurts that is for sure. You start working for this in the summer and the girls worked really hard. We had goals and unfortunately, we fell short of those girls. But hats off to Presybterian. They came out, they played hard. Their girls were fired up and I think they did have more energy than us to start the game. They made more plays than we did, especially down the stretch so hats off to them,” said head coach Chelsea Banbury.
“In March all teams want it badly. We just kind of settled and continued doing what we did during the regular season which yet ended up eating us today,” said Terrell.
HPU finished their season with an overall record of 20-11 and a 14-4 record in Big South conference play.
“The girls worked hard. They set the goals. They came together and did something that I do not know people really thought we were going to do because we graduated a lot from last year’s team. I would say we probably graduated 70 percent of our scoring, brought in a lot of new faces, and had a lot of moving parts in this season. We did not start the year well… but to turn it around and have a 20-win season I think these girls should be proud of themselves and proud of what they accomplished in conference,” said Banbury. “I am proud of them for coming together. I have really enjoyed coaching them and I loved being around them. I am not happy with how today went but I am still proud of what they did this year.”