ESPNU Selects Longwood at High Point as Feb. 13 Wildcard Game
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (www.BigSouthSports.com) – ESPNU has selected the
Longwood at High Point men’s basketball contest as its fourth Big South Wildcard broadcast of the 2024-25 season, it was announced today by the Big South Conference office. The game will move from its current Wednesday, Feb. 12 date to Thursday, Feb. 13 and will tip at 7:00pm inside the Qubein Center on the campus of High Point University.
It will be the fourth all-time “Wildcard” meeting between the squads on ESPNU and second this season, as the Lancers prevailed 82-80 on Jan. 16 thanks to
Colby Garland’s game-winning jumper with 2.5 seconds remaining. Since that setback to the Lancers, High Point has reeled off four-straight wins and currently sits a half-game back of first-place in the Big South standings at 7-2. HPU is ranked No. 17 in the latest Collegeinsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 poll, and entered the week as the Big South’s highest rated team in both KenPom (97) and the NET (97). Longwood, which has won two of the three previous ESPNU matchups, entered this week tied for third-place in the conference standings at 5-4.
Garland finished with 13 points, seven rebounds and six assists in the first meeting with the Panthers, while
Elijah Tucker led five Lancers in double figures with 16 points. Big South Preseason Player of the Year
Kezza Giffa paced High Point with 18 points. Longwood has won the last three meetings with HPU, and will seek its first regular-season sweep of the Panthers since 2022-23.
This is the 12th year of the Big South’s ESPNU Wildcard series, which again features six Thursday primetime broadcasts –- Jan. 2 (at High Point 76, Radford 58), Jan. 16 (at Longwood 82, High Point 80), Feb. 6 (Gardner-Webb at UNC Asheville - 9:00pm), Feb. 13 (Longwood at High Point - 7:00pm), Feb. 20 (7:00pm) and Feb. 27 (7:00pm) -- that are selected 7-14 days in advance. A total of 55 games have been played in the series that began in 2013-14, and while the home teams are 35-20, the 55 contests have been decided by an average of 9.55 points, with 31 (56.4 percent) of those being decided by single-digits.