Pierre Wooten scored a career-high 17 points to lead five Winthrop players in double figures as the Eagles defeated High Point 81-71 Tuesday night in a Big South Conference game.

High Point, which was facing Winthrop for the second time in eight days, drops to 8-12 on the season and 4-4 in league play.

Wooten got the Eagles off to a 19-14 start in the opening 8 minutes of the game as he connected on four of four 3-point shots.  As a team the Eagles were hot from the outside throughout the first half, nailing 10-of-15 and finished the game 11-of 21-from behind the arc.

Not to be outdone, HPU's Doug Alves accounted for nine of the Panthers' first 11 points as the Panthers shot 50 percent from three-point range in the first half but still found themselves trailing 45-30 at intermission.

Tyrone Walker joined Wooten in double figures in the first half with 10 points as he went 3 of 4 from 3-point distance and Ivan Jenkins was a perfect 3 for 3 on treys.  Walker finished the game with 16 points and eight rebounds while teammates Greg Lewis and Marcus Stewart collected double-doubles.  Lewis had his 12th double-double of the season with 12 points and 12 rebounds while Stewart finished with 11 points and 11 boards.

High Point refused to quit in the second half and came as close as seven points on two occasions, the last at 76-69 with 1:06 left in the game when Dustin Van Weerdhuizen connected on a three-pointer. 

Alves led High Point in scoring with a career-high 20 points after connecting on 6 of 13 treys.  Van Weerdhuizen
added 18.

The Panthers face another critical match-up Saturday when UNC Asheville invades the Millis Center. Tip-off is set for 2:00pm.

High Point (71) - Van Weerdhuizen 6-13 3-5 18, Halsch 2-7 2-2 6, Barrow 2-5 3-4 7, Knight 2-12 0-0 5, Alves 6-13 2-2 20, Ignativicius 0-1 0-0 0, Cornette 2-2 0-0 6, Wallace 1-2 0-0 2, Stonehocker 3-5 1-2 7.

Winthrop (81) - Lewis 6-11 0-0 12, Walker 5-12 3-4 16, Stewart 3-9 5-8 11, Harris 3-8 0-0 6, Wooten 5-7 2-4 17, Jenkins 4-4 0-0 11, Myers 2-3 0-0 4, Hemphill 0-1 0-0 0, Grant 2-4 0-2 4, English 0-2 0-0 0, Bailey 0-0 0-0 0.

High Point                                 30  41  71 Winthrop                                   45  36  81

3-Point Goals- High Point 12-27 (Alves 6-13, Van Weerdhuizen 3-9, Cornette 2-2, Knight 1-3), Winthrop 11-21 ( Wooten 5-6, Jenkins 3-3, Wlaker 3-7, Lewis 0-1, English 0-1, Harris 0-3). Fouled out- None. Rebounds- High Point 35 (Barrow 6), Winthrop 42 (Lewis 12). Assists- High Point 15 (Knight 4), Winthrop 18 (Walker 5).