NC State drops High Point, 76-73, on Cat Barber's buzzer-beating three

Box Score

Cat Barber put the cap on a tremendous night by coming to the rescue for NC State. It was Barber's tough fade-away three-pointer in the last second that finally put a tough High Point team to bed and gave the Wolfpack the 76-73 win. Barber finished the night with 26 points.

Really, Barber had been saving State's bacon all game long, but no more concretely than right here:

But that last play would not have been possible without Cody Martin or Maverick Rowan, who made big plays in the final 25 seconds. It was Cody who stole the ball from High Point when the Panthers were ready to hold for the final shot of regulation in a tie ballgame. Cody was fouled but suffered an apparent ankle injury, leaving him incapable of shooting the free throws.

High Point's head coach opted to pick BeeJay Anya to shoot in Cody's place. Anya missed both attempts, but Rowan was there to snag the board off the second miss and he called timeout to set up the final sequence.

It was a fitting end to a wild second half, as both teams were going back and forth making shots. The Panthers took advantage of more suspect NC State defense to hit half of their three-point attempts, with big nights from Anthony Lindauer and Lorenzo Cugini nearly enough to give HPU the upset.

The Panthers were pretty sharp offensively for most of the night, with good ball movement and jump shooting, along with a 13-14 effort  from the free throw line. Which made the last 20 seconds a surprise, to say the least.

We'll take 'em however we can get 'em. Now let's just hope Cody's injury is minor.