LEXINGTON, Va. - Junior Arizona Reid scored 32 points and grabbed 13 rebounds to lead High Point past VMI, 115-104, in Big South Conference action Wednesday night at Cameron Hall.
High Point moves to 11-5 overall and 2-0 in the league after securing its first road win of the season in five tries. VMI fell to 6-11 and 0-2 in the conference.
The Panthers capitalized by outscoring VMI 78-30 in the paint while committing just 19 turnovers against VMI's pressure defense. HPU shot 63% from the floor on 46 of 73 shooting and held a 45-37 edge on the boards.
High Point overcame a 41-point, 15-rebound effort from Keydet junior forward Reggie Williams, who scored 40 points for his third 40+ point game of the year.
The Panthers' 115 points scored and 46 field goals both tied Big South conference game records while the combined 219 points is a new BSC conference game record along with the 45 three-point attempts by VMI.
The Keydets opened up a four-game homestand without the services three players including two starters. Senior forward Matt Murrer missed his second straight game with a pulled hamstring, and senior guard Fred Robinson missed the game with a sprained ankle sustained in VMI's game against Winthrop Saturday night. Freshman guard Carl Josey was added to the casualty list when he went down with sprained ankle in Tuesday practice.
The Panthers never trailed in the contest. After Williams tied the game at 2-2 with VMI's first basket, HPU quickly pushed the lead to double digits with an 18-4 run and led 20-6 on Landon Quick's layup converted off a steal at the 15:30 mark. The lead grew to as much as 18 points late in the half and High Point led 63-48 at the break.
VMI rallied with a 11-4 run to start the second half and pulled within eight points, 67-59, on a Chavis Holmes 3-pointer with 15:59 left.
But the Panthers continued to drive against the VMI defense and built the lead back to as much as 20 points (99-79) on a pair of Tim Burns free throws at the 4:20 mark.
The Keydets chipped away at the margin and shaved the deficit back to seven points in the final minute of regulation, but could come no closer.
The Panthers extended their win streak to four games and have won five of the last six and eight of the last 10 games.
Reaching double figures scoring for HPU behind Reid were junior forward Jerald Minnis (27 points, 10 rebounds), senior guard Landon Quick (22 points, 10 rebounds), and sophomore forward Troy Bowen (10 points).
VMI's sophomore twin brother combination of Chavis and Travis Holmes combined for 36 points with Chavis netting 25 points and Travis adding 19 points.
Both Murrer and Robinson are expected back for Saturday's game with Charleston Southern. The Keydets will host the Bucs at 1:00 p.m. at Cameron Hall.
High Point plays host to UNC Asheville Saturday at the Millis Center at 7:00 p.m.
VMI Head Coach Duggar Baucom - "Reggie and Chavis played well in all parts of the game- I'm really proud of those guys, and Travis came on the second half after he was an non-factor in the first half. Willie Bell came on a little bit in the second half. When you have guys out, you've got to have guys step up and we didn't have enough of them step up. I thought in the first half we were a step slow and we had to get out of our press. We weren't creating any turnovers. We ended up with 11 steals, but that was shaky early on. I thought it picked up some in the second half. We've just got to make plays and it's tough when your more talented kids aren't playing. It just makes it very difficult."
NOTES-
---VMI scored over 100 points in a game for the eighth time this season.
---With 45 3-point FG attempts, the Keydets broke the school season record for 3-pointers attempted in a season and now have 768. They are now just two shy of tying the VMI mark for most 3 pt. FG's made with 245.
