That could be the contrast in styles tonight at the Millis Center in the first-ever meeting of Hampden-Sydney College and High Point University.
It will be the season opener for the Division III Bears, whose second-year coach Dee Vick tends to favor a “Princeton” offense based on methodical half-court sets and back-door cuts to the basket. High Point will try to keep the pace flowing much faster, according to Panther coach Scott Cherry.
“We’re going to have to be zeroed in,” Cherry said. “They like to back door. We’re going to have to pressure the ball while being aware of denying the passing lanes.”
Cherry is also concerned about how his team will bounce back from Wednesday night’s second-half collapse and loss at Wake Forest, and if the Panthers will take the Old Dominion Athletic Conference member seriously.
“I am concerned about how we respond after playing our hearts out at Wake Forest and coming back and maybe thinking your opponent isn’t (the caliber of ) an ACC opponent,” Cherry said.
Cherry said he did not see any lingering effects of the Wake loss when the Panthers came back to practice Thursday. HPU scored just 21 points in the second half against the Deacons after leading all but the last two minutes of the first half.
“They were high energy and enthusiastic,” Cherry said. “We looked at the tape of the Wake game and how we held them to four points in the first four minutes of the first half and let them score (seven) straight points – most of them in close – at the start of the second half. We told them we have a good team, but we’ve got to go out and play well the entire game.
“In practice, we got back to guarding defensively and executing offensively because the problems we had scoring in the second half against Wake were matters of execution.”
Turner King, a 6-foot-3 senior guard from Roanoke, is the leading returning scorer for the Bears. He averaged 17.8 points per game last season and with 1,363 points for his career ranks 10th in school history. He is also the leading rebounder back after averaging 5.5 per game last season.
Ben Jesse, a 6-0 sophomore guard, is the next best scorer back with a 10.4 ppg average. Lane Medlin, one of three players on the roster 6-6 or taller, averaged 7.1 ppg, and 6-1 senior guard Jonathan Mudd contributed 6.3 ppg.
The men’s game is the second part of a doubleheader that begins with the High Point women (1-1) facing UNC Greensboro at 4 p.m.
UNCG is 1-1 after defeating Morgan State 85-68 and losing to Big South power Liberty 60-42 on Tuesday. Amanda Leigh, a 5-10 guard from Charlotte who transferred from Winthrop, tops the Spartans in scoring at 13 ppg, with junior guard Monique Floyd from Fairmont averaging 10 ppg. But, no Spartan cracked double figures against Liberty.
gsmith@hpe.com | 888-3519
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