HPU hoops teams learn Big South schedules
Sep. 21—HIGH POINT — High Point University women's basketball will open and end Big South play in the Qubein Center while the Panthers men's team will be on the road according to schedules released by the league this week.
All men's and women's teams in the league will play a 16-game round-robin schedule (the other eight schools twice) beginning Wednesday, Jan. 3, and ending Saturday, March 2, with each school having two open dates.
League games are on a Wednesday-Saturday schedule for men and women except for six Thursday men's games selected for showing on ESPNU (Jan. 11, Jan. 18, Feb. 1, Feb. 15, Feb. 22 and Feb. 29).
All schools will play each other during the opening month, with the second game between schools at least two weeks later.
On every date that HPU is in action, one team will be at home with the other on the road against the same team.
HPU's women play host to Radford in their conference opener on Jan. 3 while the men's head coach Alan Huss makes his league debut at the Highlanders. Huss' first conference game at home is Jan. 6 against Gardner-Webb while the women play at the Runnin' Bulldogs, under first-year coach Scott Merritt, in a rematch of last season's conference tournament title game.
Other home games for the men with the women on the road are Jan. 10 against UNC Asheville, Jan. 20 against Charleston Southern, Jan. 31 against Longwood, Feb. 3 against Presbyterian, Feb. 14 against USC Upstate, Feb. 17 against Radford, Feb. 28 against Winthrop..
The rest of the women's home schedule with the men on the road: Jan. 17 against Presbyterian, Jan. 24 against USC Upstate, Jan. 27 against Winthrop, Feb. 7 against UNC Asheville, Feb. 10 against Gardner-Webb, Feb. 24 against Charleston Southern and March 2 against Longwood.
Open dates for the Panthers are Jan. 14 and Feb. 21.
Gardner-Webb's men will also open and end their conference schedule on the road in addition to HPU while the Running Bulldog women join the Panthers in opening and closing at home.
Among the men's teams, Radford and Winthrop open and close at home.
Presbyterian and Charleston Southern open and close the season against each other, with the men's game at Charleston Southern on opening night. Other schools teams meeting on Jan. 3 are Winthrop and Longwood, with the women's game at Longwood serving as the Lancers' first conference contest in the new Joan Perry Brock Center; and UNC Asheville against USC Upstate (with the men's game at defending champ Asheville).
Final conference standings will determine seeding for the league tournament scheduled March 6-10 in the Qubein Center.
