LEXINGTON, Va. - Freshman guard Landon Quick hit a driving layup with 1.2 seconds left to cap a furious High Point University rally and lift the Panthers to a 76-75 Big South win over VMI Wednesday night at Cameron Hall.
It was High Point's third straight one-point win . The Panthers (17-10, 10-6 Big South) locked up the #2 seed for the Big South tournament and will face VMI next Tuesday at the Millis Center in High Point, N.C at 7:00 p.m.
VMI (6-20, 4-11) led by as much as 10 points on four occasions in the second half - the latest a 70-60 advantage with under three minutes to play. But a 3-pointer by Quick, a Danny Gathings layup, and 3-pointer by Brent Halsch sliced the VMI lead to 73-70 with :45 left. The Keydets' Matt Murrer had a layup blocked by Pat Hilliman on VMI's ensuing possesion and Gathings quickly converted a layup to pull HPU within 73-72 with 24 ticks remaining.
VMI's Richard Little was fouled and converted two free throws at the :20 mark to make it 75-72, but Joshua Chambers responded with a layup to cut the lead back to one, 75-74, with :12 left. Hilliman sent VMI freshman guard Matt Coward to the line, but the Richmond native failed to convert either free throw attempt. Gathings rebounded and promptly handed to Quick, who drove down the floor and through the right wing for the winning bucket.
Gathings led all scorers with 26 points, including 20 in the first half on 10-11 shooting from the field. Quick finished with 15 points, Chambers added 13 points, and Zione White tallied 10 points.
VMI placed four in double figures scoring and was led by Radee Skipworth with 20 points and 13 rebounds, his third double-double and seventh 20-point game of the year. Matt Murrer scored 16 points, while Fred Robinson and Matt Coward added 13 and 11 points, respectively.
Keydet Richard Little tied a career-high with 13 assists.
The Keydets squandered a seven of 15 performance from the 3-point line - their best against a Division I opponent this season. VMI also held a 33-25 edge on the boards, but could not secure their seventh home win and finished the season 6-6 at Cameron Hall.
The game featured eight lead changes and four ties before Quick's game winning shot sent the Panthers to their 10th Big South win, a school record.
HPU shot 58.2% for the game including 18 of 28 shots in the first half for 64.3%. VMI shot 52.7% from the field for the game.
VMI will close out the regular season Saturday night at Birmingham-Southern at 8:00 EST, before playing at High Point on Tuesday. The Panthers are finished with the regular season, and will have a six-day break before hosting the Keydets next Tuesday.
VMI Coach Bart Bellairs - "We had our chances. We missed a couple of key layups and we had a bad turnover and a couple of freshman mistakes. But I thought our guys played very, very hard. If we had just finished a couple of plays at the end, we would have been okay.You've got to make the plays at the end- we did not, give them the credit, they did. We played well enough to win against a very good basketball team. You've got to be ready to knock down free throws, make good hard cuts, we lost a little composure.That's one we could have had and should have had."
