By MONTE DUTTON
Presbyterian has proved its men’s basketball team can play with the best the Big South Conference offers.
What the Blue Hose have to learn to do is beat them.
In spite of 25 points from both Jonah Pierce and Triston Wilson – and Pierce’s 12th double-double (with 10 rebounds), High Point managed to pull out an 84-81 victory over the Blue Hose.
Presbyterian (11-12, 4-4) has already lost to the three schools in front of it in the conference standings.
The Blue Hose did a lot of things right in front of 5,245 at Qubein Center. They shot well, overall (28/52, .538), beyond the arc (6/12, .500) and at the foul line (19/24, .792). Seventeen turnovers, off which the Panthers outscored the Hose 17-2, didn’t help.
High Point (19-4, 7-1), the reigning Big South champ, and Winthrop (15-7, 7-1) are locked at the top. Radford (9-4, 5-3) is scheduled to visit Templeton Center on Saturday 2 p.m., though the possibility of snow could affect that game.
PC fell to Winthrop on Saturday, 82-72, and to the Panthers on Thursday. Radford defeated the Hose, 80-61, on Jan. 7.
“I was really proud of the guys’ effort,” PC coach Quinton Ferrell said. “At High Point, big-time environment, I think we came out to play. The difference in the game was the same as in the previous one against Winthrop. We just had too many unforced turnovers.
“Jonah (Pierce) responded like your best player/fifth-year senior would. I thought this would be the type of performance he would give us.”
The game was tied eight times and had 14 lead changes. High Point got hot at about the mid-point of the latter half and pulled out to a nine-point lead with 8:30 remaining.
Rob Martin, who popped 8/9 free throws but only 1/7 triples, led the Panthers with 21 points. Three more – Terry Anderson (18), Owen Aquino (13) and Braden Hausen (13) – scored in double figures. Aquino led the Panthers with seven rebounds.
Carl Parrish added 15 points for the Blue Hose. Wilson led with five assists.
High Point led 42-41 at halftime.
Take a look at the stats here.
Zack Heeman, a player and coach at separate Big Ten institutions, is PC’s new offensive line coach.
Heeman joins the Blue Hose after a two-year graduate assistant position at the University of Wisconsin. He also coached at the high-school level for five seasons and played at Rutgers.
“Coach Heeman and I come from the same tree of offensive line coaches,” said Matt Rahl, who himself was the director of PC’s O-Line for the past two years prior to being elevated to head coach in late December.
“He has a great reputation of pouring into people and their development, from his time as a high school coach all the way to Wisconsin. I can’t wait to watch him grow this group at PC,” Rahl added.and
The Presbyterian College football staff gained its seventh new member as head coach Matt Rahl assigned Juwan Moye to direct the Blue Hose defensive line.
Moye was an All-League lineman at nearby Newberry College, aiding two South Atlantic Conference Championships as a player. He remained with the Wolves on the coaching staff for the past three seasons, helping take Newberry to the Division II National Semifinals in December.
“I am very excited to add Coach Moye to our staff,” said Rahl. “He brings great enthusiasm to our program and a proven track record of developing defensive linemen. Coach Moye also brings huge value to our staff due to his recruiting skill around the South Carolina and Georgia areas.”
Stacey Johnson-Whitfield, former standout pitcher at the University of South Carolina and previous head coach at Furman University, is now associate head coach at PC.
Eight different Furman players received All-Southern Conference recognition in Johnson-Whitfield’s four years at the helm, including one SoCon Player of the Year (and All-Region third-team selection) as well as one SoCon Freshman of the Year.
A native of Pennsylvania, Johnson-Whitfield contributed to a pair of Southeastern Conference Eastern Division Championships. South Carolina advanced to the NCAA Tournament in all four years that she was on the roster.
Longwood forward Elijah Tucker (Canton, Ga.) is the Big South Men’s Basketball Player of the Week, while Radford forward Frederik Erichsen(Copenhagen, Denmark) is the Freshman of the Week honoree for games played Jan. 19-25.
Jonah Pierce (Presbyterian) was also nominated.
Senior Avery West of Presbyterian is Preseason All-Big South in lacrosse for the second consecutive year.
West aims to become the second player in Blue Hose history to be named postseason All-Big South for three years in a row. She was a second-team honoree in 2024 and a first-team pick last spring.
Presbyterian begins the 2026 season on Sunday, Feb. 8 with a visit to Coastal Carolina. They’ll compete at Bailey Memorial Stadium for the next three matches, starting on the 15th versus Le Moyne.
A native of Texas, Avery is one of four Blue Hose in program history to be named all-conference in back-to-back seasons.
Mercer is favored to win the Big South in lacrosse after accumulating seven of the nine first-place votes for 79 points. High Point comes in second place with two first-place votes and 73 points. Wofford (48 points) and Winthrop (44 points) follow Furman in the standings in fourth and fifth places, respectively. A total of one point separates Gardner-Webb (29 points) and Radford (28 points) in sixth and seventh places. Presbyterian (8thplace, 22 points) and Longwood (9th place, 20 points) round out the preseason poll.
Sophomore Jeep Patrick is preseason Big South Men’s Golfer of the Year. Last season, Patrick captured the Big South Championship individual title.
The Hilton Head Island native became the first Blue Hose player to capture the Big South individual championship and earn a berth in the NCAA DI Regionals last year.
Laurens broke into the state rankings this week. The Raiders (14-7, 4-1 Region 1-4A) are ninth in Class 4A boys’ basketball, according to the S.C. Basketball Coaches Association.
The Raiders visit Fountain Inn (9-12, 3-2) on Friday.
The Laurens girls are 13-7, 3-2 in the region, going into the Fountain Inn (12-9, 3-2) game.
The Clinton girls (21-1, 6-0 Region 3-2A) remain at the top of 2A. The Red Devils’ latest win was 43-28 over Fairfield Central (3-10,0-6) in Winnsboro on Wednesday.
The key to Clinton success is versatility. Allensen Cook leads in scoring (9.1), Kemaria Shelton in rebounds (6.4) and Mylayja Thompson in assists (5.0).
The Clinton boys (13-8, 6-0) slipped past Fairfield Central (9-9, 4-2), 41-35. Columbia visits on Friday night.
Laurens Academy is 18-1 after a 58-17 girls’ thumping of King Academy. A game at Our Lady of the Rosary is up next in Greenville on Friday.
The Crusader boys (11-10) won against King, 54-19, and Richard Winn, 58-35.
The Thornwell girls (7-7) defeated Calhoun Falls Charter, 56-30, while the boys lost their 14th straight, 70-17.
The Saints visit Abbeville on Friday night.
I’ll be out and about again soon. I’m living in a small camper-trailer, and it seems like I’m a character in one of those old movies about city folks moving to the country. Everything’s now working. Knock on wood.
By the way, Presbyterian, Furman and Wofford were all on TV Thursday night.
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