FARMVILLE, Va. - Led by Skylar Curran's six treys and 24 points, High Point converted 13 three-pointers to negate Longwood senior Dayna Rouse's fourth double-double of the season and pull away from the Lancers 76-69 Saturday aftenroon in Willett Hall.
Curran and fellow guard Zaria Wright both topped the 20-point plateau to hand Longwood (8-8, 4-3 Big South) its second straight single-digit home loss in Willett Hall. Their effort was enough to overcome a 24-point, 12-rebound double-double from Rouse and 17 points from Longwood freshman and the Big South's leading scorer Kyla McMakin.
High Point (6-10, 4-3 Big South) used the three-point shot from the start and finished 13-of-32 from behind the line to continue a surge that has seen the Panthers win four of their past five games, all in BIg South play. Curran scored 11 of her 24 points in the first 10 minutes of action, shooting 3-of-4 from behind the arc in the frame.
Longwood entered the locker room at the break trailing the Panthers by four points, with Curran leading all scorers at the break with 14 points and four treys in the half. Rouse paced the Lancers' offense with 6-of-7 shooting from the floor with a team-high 13 points and seven rebounds.
McMakin came alive in the third quarter for the Lancers, converting on three mid-range jump shots to spark Longwood after the break. The Lancers trailed the Panthers by six points in the quarter but rebounded to claim the lead with 3:03 left in the frame when Anne-Hamilton LeRoy found the bottom of the net on a layup in the paint. High Point finished the final 1:44 of the quarter on a 7-2 run to regain the lead heading into the final stretch, 51-48.
High Point stretched its lead back to seven n the early stages of the fourth quarter, but Longwood battled back to take a two-point lead with 3:16 remaining on a Tra'Dayja Smith layup. However, the Panthers responded to that run with one of their own, breaking the game open with a 13-4 rally that ran to the final whistle.
"I thought our team had fight today," said Longwood head coach Rebecca Tillett. "One of our concerns coming in was we had fight against Radford, but we could not take the lead, and so we made a small step forward in terms of that in the second half today. We had big concerns about High Point's ability to shoot three-pointers and how we were going to counter that because of how we are shooting the three right now. We needed to get to the free-throw line more than we did today to help counter their offense.
"Dayna had a great effort to record 12 rebounds; she is a talented scorer, and we need her to rebound for our team to be successful, and I thought she did that well tonight to put us in a position to battle at the end."
Rouse led the Lancers offense with 24 points, shooting 66 percent from the court while grabbing a game-best 12 rebounds. McMakin and Tra'Dayja Smith joined Rouse in double-figures with McMakin scoring 12 of her 17 points in the second half, and Smith using a perfect 4-of-4 from the free-throw line for 10 points in the loss.
The Panthers are the best three-point shooting team in the Big South, averaging 9.9 three-pointers per game, 2.6 higher than the next Big South team. High Point shot 40 percent from behind the arc converting on 13-of-32 three-point opportunities. Longwood could not match the outside firepower of the Panthers offense but did overpower High Point in the paint. Longwood finished with 40 points inside the paint, compared to the Panthers 26 points near the rim.
Longwood will prepare for the next week of Big South play with an away matchup against Winthrop to start the week on Tuesday, January 21, in Rock Hill, S.C. Longwood and Winthrop will both enter the matchup looking to end a stretch of two consecutive losses. After competing against the Eagles, Longwood will head back to Farmville and welcome the Bulldogs of UNC Asheville to Willett Hall on Saturday, January 25.
"We have to keep working as a team and learn from every loss," said senior Dayna Rouse. "The close losses hurt, but in practice, we have to keep working on all things we are struggling with on the court. We must stay together as a team during this stretch."
#GoWood.
