FARMVILLE, Va. – High Point’s men’s basketball team stepped out of conference on Tuesday night for the final time this season.

The Panthers lost their footing late and stumbled to a 70-66 loss.

HPU led by 10 in the final minutes before the Lancers stormed back to secure an unlikely victory. The Lancers scored 16 of the game’s final 18 points. HPU was held without a field goal over the final five minutes.

The Panthers fell to 11-11. The Lancers upped their mark to 6-16.

“It was a really good basketball game and a really good atmosphere, and my hat goes off to those guys,” said HPU head coach Scott Cherry. “We lost our aggressiveness offensively in the last few minutes and needed to make some defensive stops. We should have won that game. We had control with five, six minutes to go and we let the lead slip away.”

Nick Barbour paced the Panthers with 20 points. Corey Law chipped in 15 points and 13 rebounds for HPU.

Law converted three baskets and a free throw to give the Panthers a 64-54 cushion. But the Lancers unleashed a 9-0 run to tighten things up and tied the game at 66 when Kevin Swecker hit a three-pointer to tie it with 49 seconds to go.

Longwood’s Aaron Mitchell and Dana Smith nailed two free throws each in the final 30 seconds to seal the victory.

Antwan Carter scored 19 points for Longwood, Mitchell scored 18 and Smith 17. Smith also had 13 rebounds.

HPU led by as many as 14 points in the first half and was up 51-38 after a Eugene Harris 3-pointer with 14:19 to go.

The Panthers resume their Big South schedule on Saturday at Radford. Game time is 7 p.m. High Point took an 83-77 win over the Highlanders on Jan. 9 at the Millis Center.