Box Score BOX SCORE
Postgame Comments

Nick Barbour (Danville, Va./George Washington) scored a career-high 38 points and senior Eugene Harris (Pittsburgh, Pa./St. Thomas Moore Prep) scored his 1,000th-career point as the High Point University men's basketball team earned a season-opening 104-72 victory over UNC Pembroke before a crowd of 1081 at the Millis Center on Saturday.

"I'm proud of our guys for the way they played, there was a lot of effort out there," said head coach Scott Cherry. "We could have executed a little better in the second half but every time you score 102 points you've got to be happy with that. Our guys played extremely hard the whole 40 minutes."

HPU opened the season with a win for the first time since 2004-05. It was the first regular-season game for Cherry, who became HPU head coach in March after 11 seasons as a Div. I assistant coach at George Mason, Tennessee Tech, Western Kentucky and South Carolina.

Barbour scored his 38 points on an outstanding 13-for-16 shooting, including 10-for-11 on 3-pointers. His only miss came 6:50 into the game when the Panthers already had a 16-2 lead. Barbour also had a pair of assists, a pair of rebounds and a pair of steals.

"Nick had a fantastic night, his offense was phenomenal," said Cherry. "He's a great kid. I'm on everyone about trying to improve their defense and Nick has been working on that. I really want a squad of guys that work together and help each other out on defense."

Harris finished the game with 13 points and four assists. He surpassed the 1,000-point mark for his career on a jumper with just under a minute left in the first half.

"It's tremendous, it's a huge individual accomplishment for Eugene," said Cherry. "I'm proud of him and I'm happy he got the 1,000 points in a win. He has really been zeroed in on working hard, having a great season and leaving this place as a champion."

Redshirt freshman Corey Law (Chesapeake, Va./Deep Creek) also scored in double figures with 11 points in his first collegiate game. He added six rebounds. Earnest Bridges (Raleigh, N.C./Wake Forest-Rolesville) and David Singleton (Coatesville, Pa./Hill School) each scored nine points and Cruz Daniels (Clearwater, Fla./Clearwater) scored seven with a team-leading seven rebounds and two blocks.

Law opened the game with a dunk 15 seconds into play, and the Panthers never relinquished the lead. HPU opened up leads of 20-4 and 41-15 en route to a 55-23 halftime lead. The teams played to an even 49-49 score in the second half, giving the Panthers a 104-72 final.

UNC Pembroke was led in scoring by freshman guard Shahmel Brackett's 17 points. Ty Alston scored 13 points and went 6-for-6 on free throws, and forward Brandon Thomas had 10 points and four rebounds.

HPU shot 58.5 percent from the field, including 52.2 percent from 3-point range in the game.

High Point University is back in action against Wake Forest on Wednesday at 8 p.m. at Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Winston-Salem, N.C. It will be the seventh all-time meeting between HPU and Wake Forest.