Once again, Presbyterian’s basketball teams lost, the men’s team in a close affair at Templeton Center, the women in a dismal showing in High Point.

The men’s team, which began its season with a shocking upset of Vanderbilt, lost its fourth straight Big South Conference game and third in a row at home.

The women have lost two straight, neither of them close.

It’s not that the Blue Hose aren’t playing hard. They just aren’t playing well.

High Point arrived at Templeton Center unbeaten in the Big South, and once again, Presbyterian was almost up to the task.

Samage Teel hit a three-pointer at the buzzer, but it only brought the PC men within three. High Point (15-4, 4-0 Big South) won, 86-83.

Presbyterian (9-11, 1-4) stood toe to toe with the Panthers in almost every statistical category.

Marquis Barnett was PC’s leading scorer with 25 points. The 6-4 junior from Saginaw, Mich.. buried 7/10 shots, 5/6 of them triples, and paired the points with six rebounds, four assists and two steals.

The Blue Hose shot .556 (30/54) from the floor, .526 (10/19) from deep, beat the Panthers on the boards (36-24) and sagged in turnovers (17-5) and free-throw shooting (.700-.591). High Point was no slouch with the ball in its hands, shooting .500 overall, .438 from three and .700 at the line.

Teel popped 22 points, converting a mere 3/5 triples. Trevon Reddish-Rhone scored 10 on 5/10 shooting and snagged eight rebounds.

The game’s leading scorer was High Point’s Kezza Giffa with 27 points, followed by Kimani Hamilton with 22 and Duke Miles’ 17. Juslin Bodo Bodo collected eight points and nine rebounds.

Reddish-Rhone (5), Barnett (4) and Jonah Pierce (3) accounted for 12 of the Blue Hose’ 17 turnovers.

Next up the Blue Hose go to Virginia on consecutive Saturdays to play Longwood first at 3 p.m. this weekend and, on Jan. 27, Radford at 4:30.

Take a look at the stats here.

High Point (8-9, 3-1) scored more points than Presbyterian (11-9, 2-3) in the first and fourth quarters by 10 points each, accounting for all but one point (in the second quarter) of the 76-55 margin in the women’s game at Qubein Center.

Twenty-two turnovers and subpar shooting do not a victory make.

Four Blue Hose – Mara Neira and Tilda Sjokvist with 12 points each and Bryanna Brady with 10 – finished in the low double digits, but PC shot .396 (21/53) overall, .273 (3/11) from bonus distance and .526 at the free-throw line.

It wouldn’t have been so glaring had not High Point put up .569 (29/51), .471 (8/17) and .667 (10/15) by the same measures.

Faith Price led the Panthers with 21 points that were pure. She hit all seven shots, four of them triples, but had neither a rebound nor an assist. Lauren Bevis added 13 and Neveah Zavala 11. Nakyah Terrell distributed four assists.

Sjokvist and Neira each had four assists for the Hose. Neira grabbed 10 rebounds.

“I thought we had stretches and moments that we did a really good job of executing our game plan on both sides of the floor,” stated PC head coach Alaura Sharp. “I’m frustrated with our start to the game, and I think High Point is too good of a team to get down 10 right away.

“I think we are a better basketball team than we have played our last couple of games. Were going to keep coaching them. and I know our kids our going to keep playing hard and keep fighting. We just have to stay with it.”

The upcoming Blue Hose games – at home against Longwood on Saturday and Jan. 27 at Radford – are both scheduled for 2 p.m., the latter being the opener of a twinbill with the men’s team.

Take a look at the stats here.

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