March 10, 2025
Photo Credits: HPU Athletics
Not just one, but both High Point University basketball teams will be advancing to the 2025 NCAA tournament for the first time in school history after the women’s team defeated No. 2 Longwood University, 59-53, on Sunday night in the Big South Conference championship game.
It is the eighth time the Panthers have advanced to the Big South Conference championship game since joining NCAA Division 1 in the 1999-2000 season with their last appearance in the title game coming in 2023 against No. 2 Gardner-Webb University in a game that resulted in an HPU loss, 74-61.
Of those eight appearances, it is only the second time in program history and the first time since 2021 that HPU will head to the “Big Dance.”
In 2021, HPU took down No. 2 seed Campbell University, 62-46, to take home the championship trophy. However, the Panthers went into the NCAA tournament as the No. 16 seed with the tall task of taking on the dominant women’s powerhouse and No. 1 seed, the University of Connecticut. HPU stood no chance from tip-off as Connecticut soared to a 102-59 victory.
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This season was a rough start for the Panthers as they finished non-conference play with a 5-8 record. However, during that non-conference stretch of games, HPU secured its first power-five win under sixth-year head coach Chelsea Banbury as the Panthers upset Big 12 opponent, the University of Central Florida (UCF), on the road, 64-60. The win over UCF near the later stretch of HPU’s non-conference schedule gave the team a lot of hope heading into conference play despite the Panthers’ losing record.
Conference play rolled around for Banbury and HPU, and the team zoomed through the Big South opponents with little problem besides a few bumps in the road as HPU finished with a 13-3 conference record including six straight wins to finish the regular season and clinch the outright Big South regular season championship for the second year in a row, and the third time in five seasons.
Last season, HPU went into the Big South tournament as the No. 1 seed with the goal of winning the tournament and making March Madness, except their dreams fell short when the No. 5 Presbyterian College upset HPU in the semifinals, 59-50.
This year Banbury was not going to allow that outcome in the tournament to happen again. Led by the fantastic tournament play from Aaliyah Collins, Jaleesa Lawrence, and Nevaeh Zavala, the Panthers easily handled No. 9 UNC Asheville, 85-57, in the quarterfinals, then No. 5 Winthrop University, 64-49, in the quarterfinals before facing off against Longwood for the Big South title.
Just as the HPU men’s basketball team faced a deficit heading into the last period of the championship game, the women’s did as well as Longwood took a five-point lead at the end of three quarters, 47-42, with 10 minutes left to play.
Collins, Lawrence, Zavala, and Lauren Scott, who scored six of her 11 points in the fourth quarter, all came up huge in helping HPU complete the comeback to seal the win, 59-53.
Zavala finished with a game-high 16 points and 10 rebounds, Lawrence added with a dominant all-around performance of 12 points, seven rebounds (four offensive), three assists, and three steals, and Collins recorded 10 points, five assists, and five steals.
The win solidifies HPU’s automatic bid into the NCAA tournament.
The 68-team field and the seeding for HPU and the other teams in the tournament will be announced Sunday, March 16 at 8 p.m. on ESPN with the first round of games slated to start Wednesday, March 19.
