BUIES CREEK, N.C. – Reco McCarter scored 19 points and Campbell held off a High Point rally to defeat the Panthers 74-71 Wednesday night in the Big South Conference opener for both teams at Gore Arena.
Antwon Oliver added 13 points off the bench for the Camels (7-9, 1-0), who led by as many as 17 in the first half, then held High Point without a field goal for the last 4:07 of the game.
The pre-season Big South North Division favorite, High Point (4-10, 0-1) dropped its eighth game in the last nine outings despite rallying to tie the game when Dejuan McGaughy hit both ends of a 1-and-1 with 2:33 remaining.
Marvelle Harris missed on a drive on the following possession, but Adam Weary, who finished with a career-high 22 points, lost the ball on a drive to the bucket and Darius Leonard grabbed possession.
What proved to be the winning points came on McCarter's triple from the right wing with 1:18 left. High Point missed its final three attempts from the floor and Campbell won its league opener for the fifth-straight year, third-straight since re-joining the Big South in 2011-12.
"High Point didn't get many clean looks in the first half," said first-year Campbell head coach Kevin McGeehan. "Once they got some drives going in the second half, things kind of opened up for them. But we played really, really tough, and especially down the stretch we really made some plays. All in all, if we put together two defensive halves maybe we could be scary."
McCarter had 14 first-half points and the Camels led 40-25 at the break as High Point shot just 38.5 percent in the opening half. CU, which never trailed, led 69-60 on Leek Leek's bucket with 6:28 remaining.
However, the Panthers made 17 of their first 22 shots from the floor in the final half and trimmed the gap to 69-67 on Weary's 3 from the top of the key with 4:31 to go.
After McCarter's triple, Weary missed from the left side and Campbell gained possession after the ball was knocked out of bounds with 1:00 to go. The Camels ran the shot clock down, but Luke Moyer's triple from the left corner was long to give High Point a chance to tie.
John Brown, the Big South pre-season player of the year, missed a trey from the right corner – just the second long distance attempt of the year for the power forward – but Weary grabbed the offensive board. High Point called its fourth timeout with 10.2 seconds remaining and had to call its final when Devante Wallace couldn't get the ball in on the sideline out of bounds play against Leek's pressure.
Lorenzo Cugini had a chance to even the score, but his triple with 7 seconds to go bounded off the rim and went over the top of the back board to give possession to the Camels. High Point had only committed 3 fouls over the first 19:55 of the final half, so the Panthers fouled three times down the stretch and even got one last attempt when CU lost the ball out of bounds with 1.3 seconds to go.
However, High Point couldn't get off a shot before the buzzer sounded and dropped to 1-8 on the road this year.
Campbell knocked down a season-high 12 three-pointers and shot 45 percent from the field (28-62) overall, while finishing with a 32-29 edge on the glass. The Camels had 25 assists on 28 field goals as McCarter and Andrew Ryan dealt 5 apiece.
After being named Big South player of the week on Monday, McCarter hit 8-of-15 shots, including 3-of-5 treys, and pulled down a team-high 7 rebounds despite being limited to 29 minutes due to foul trouble. Ryan scored all 8 of his points in the second half. Campbell's bench outscored the High Point reserves by a 26-5 margin.
Weary scored 19 second-half points on 8-of-10 shooting after going 1-of-6 from the field in the opening period. Brown had 15 points on 5-of-14 from the floor and 5-of-9 from the line, plus 10 rebounds. McGaughy matched his career high with 15 points on 5-of-5 from the floor and 4-of-4 from the line. Cugini added 10 for the Panthers, who shot 51.9 percent (27-52) for the game, 65.4 percent (17-26) in the second half.
Oliver hit back-to-back threes to give the Camels a 20-11 lead with 9:18 left in the first period. However, High Point answered with a 10-3 burst and cut the gap to 23-21 on McGaughy's drive with 5:43 to play.
Campbell then closed the first half on a 17-4 run as McCarter scored 7 points, including a triple from the left wing that pushed the edge to 17 (40-23) before McGaughy's foul shots cut the margin to 40-25 at the break.
The Camels shot 48.5 percent (16-33) from the floor in the opening period and went 7-of-16 from 3-point range as 5 different CU players connected beyond the arc. McCarter had 14 first-half points on 6-of-10 shootings, plus 5 rebounds, while Oliver added 8.
Campbell returns to action Saturday with a 5:00 p.m. tip-off at Longwood (5-11, 0-1), which dropped its league opener 95-72 Wednesday night at VMI.
