HIGH POINT, N.C. -- Landon Quick's lay-up with one second remaining lifted the High Point Panthers to a dramatic 73-72 victory over the Keydets Wednesday night at the Millis Center. Quick followed up an Akeem Scott miss under the hoop with his game-winning lay-up to lead the Panthers to its 13th win of the season.
Mike Jefferson led the Panthers with 19 points, connecting on five three-pointers on the night. Teammate Arizona Reid, the league's fourth-leading scorer, added 18 points and nine rebounds.
VMI freshman Travis Holmes paced the Keydets with a career-high 20 points, while junior forward Matt Murrer collected his sixth career double-double with 12 points and a game-high 13 rebounds. Despite scoring just two points in the first half, Reggie Williams poured in 17 second-half points to finish with 19 to go along with seven rebounds.
The Panthers improve to 13-10 overall and 6-7 in the Big South Conference, while the Keydets fall to 7-17, 2-11 in the Big South.
After a relatively slow start by both teams, the Panthers got things going mid-way through the first half by rattling off runs of five and ten points to build up a 12-point first half lead at the 6:12 mark.
But just when it appeared High Point was destined to run away from VMI, they Keydets responded with seven straight points to cut the Panther lead down to five within a matter of minutes. The two teams would trade baskets the remainder of the half, and High Point headed to intermission with a 31-26 lead.
The Keydets had difficulty scoring in the first half, and shot just 20.8% from the field in the opening session. Good defense kept the game close, as the Keydets held the Panthers to just 32% shooting, but five three-pointers gave them the slight edge.
The Keydets, however, came out stronger in the second half, and managed to tie the game in the opening minutes by crashing the offensive glass. VMI grabbed four offensive rebounds for put backs to tie the game at 37-37.
After a Reggie Williams three-point play with 13:52 remaining tied the score at 45-45, the Keydets would hold the lead for the next nine-plus minutes of action. High Point battled back, and seized the lead back on a Mike Jefferson three with just over four left to play.
The next three and a half minutes would see the team's battle back and forth, with three ties and two lead changes. However, with just 20 seconds remaining, Williams drove the lane and converted a lay-up to give the Keydets a 72-71 advantage.
On the Panther's next possession, Reggie Williams came up with a loose ball and appeared to call timeout with just six ticks remaining on the clock, however, he was whistled for traveling and the ball went back to High Point for one last chance.
With the clock winding down, the Panthers fired up two straight shots and came up empty handed. The second attempt by Akeem Scott came up well short, but Landon Quick was there to secure the missed shot and lay it in at the buzzer for the win. The Panther bench came roaring out to mob Quick and celebrate its 73-72 win at home.
For the game, the Panthers shot 40.3% from the field, connecting on 27-67 attempts including 7-23 from downtown. Despite the poor shooting in the first half, the Keydets finished the game at 38.9% (21-54) by shooting 53.3% in the second half.
The Keydets held a slight 44-42 advantage on the boards, but committed a costly 21 turnovers on the day. And while free throw shooting was pretty good for VMI (25-36 for 69.4%), a few misses down the stretch from the charity stripe proved to be costly.
While this is a tough one to swallow, the Keydets are still well in the mix for the final conference playoff spot. The Keydets must regroup and prepare for a two-game road swing in the state of South Carolina. First, they travel to Charleston to face Charleston Southern on February 18 at 12:00 p.m. at the CSU Field, and follow that with a clash at Coastal Carolina just two days later. The Panthers travel to Loyola, Md. to square off with Loyola in non-conference action on Friday, February 17 at 7 p.m.
