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Senior guard Nick Barbour scored 21 points, eclipsing 2,000 in his career, but a rally by the High Point University men's basketball team fell short as it took a 70-67 loss to Charleston Southern on Saturday at the CSU Field House on Saturday in Charleston, S.C. HPU cut a 13-point deficit to one point in the last minute.

"We were stuck on 55 for a while. Sometimes that's the way it goes on the road, but we gave ourselves a chance to take the lead at the end," said HPU head coach Scott Cherry. "Our guys fought to give themselves a chance. We got stops and made some plays in the end but unfortunately we couldn't come back from that stretch in the second half."

Barbour hit six three-pointers on his way to 21 points. He finished the game with 2,001 in his career, becoming the third HPU player behind Eugene Littles (2,398) and Arizona Reid (2,069). Barbour is already HPU's all-time leader with 296 three-pointers.

HPU senior Shay Shine scored 18 points, including three key three-pointers in the second half, and had four assists. Junior forward Branimir Mikulic had a team-high seven rebounds and scored seven points.

Mathiang Muo led CSU with 26 points and went 8-for-11 from three-point range, including 3-for-4 from long range in the second half. Arlon Harper scored 14 points and Kelvin Martin had a double-double with 11 points and 13 rebounds.

High Point fell to 10-16 overall and 6-10 in the Big South while Charleston Southern improved to 15-10 overall and 9-6 in the league.

High Point was within four points with 7:03 remaining before three-straight three-pointers by Charleston Southern – one by Saah Nimley and two by Muo – put the Bucs up 68-55 with just over five minutes to go.

The Panthers then went on their run, scoring the next 12 points of the game to cut it to a point. After a Shine free throw, Xavier Martin slashed to the basket to make it 68-58.

Shine hit a three coming out of the under-4:00 timeout and hit another with 1:36 remaining to make it 68-64. After a timeout, Nimley was called for a charge with 1:22 remaining and HPU turned it into a Barbour three-pointer that got the Panthers within one point at 68-67.

On the ensuing Charleston Southern possession, HPU's Branimir Mikulic came up with the rebound of a Harper shot and Cherry called timeout. Coming out of it, a Barbour three-pointer missed and Shine grabbed the rebound but stepped out of bounds. HPU fouled Muo on the inbounds pass, and Muo hit both for CSU. A Shine three-point attempt in the final seconds missed.

The Panthers took a 41-39 lead into halftime when Devante Wallace hit a fade-away jumper with 15 seconds on the clock. High Point led by eight points twice early in the first half, the first coming when Barbour hit three free throws to make it 21-13 and the second when Shine hit two freebees to make it 23-15.

Charleston Southern battled back and took its first lead of the game, 24-23, on a Jeremy Sexton jumper with 6:26 to go in the half. HPU got back out by six before CSU was able to battle back again, tying it in the last minute on a Muo three-pointer before Wallace's jumper.

The teams went back and forth early in the second half and HPU led by four (52-48) on a three-pointer by Shine. Consecutive three-pointers by Harper and Sexton gave Charleston Southern the lead, which it held the rest of the way. A layup by Corey Law got HPU within a point (55-54) with 10:30 left, but High Point was able to score just two points in the next six minutes as the Buccaneer's got out to their 13-point lead.

The Panthers have a quick turnaround to host Radford on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the Millis Center. HPU then departs for its Sears ESPN BracketBuster game at Stephen F. Austin State on Saturday at 7 p.m. (Eastern).