An early second half surge and strong defensive effort throughout helped the High Point men's basketball squad earn a 64-45 victory at UNC Asheville on Saturday night.
With the win, High Point ends a three-game losing skid and improves to 11-7 overall and 4-4 in the Big South Conference. The loss drops UNC Asheville to 5-13 (3-5 Big South) and snaps a two-game win streak for the Bulldogs. The Panthers have now won in four of their last five visits to Asheville's Justice Center.
Sophomore Arizona Reid continued his solid play for High Point recording a 15 point, 11 rebound double-double, his ninth of the year and fifth in the last six games. HPU got balanced scoring from the rest of the line-up with five other players finishing with seven to nine points. Sophomore Jerald Minnis, who earned his first start of his career, responded with a career best nine points. Issa Konare keyed the HPU defense recording five blocked shots to up his Big South Conference lead to 50.
Oliver Holmes led the Bulldogs with 12 points with Omar Collington chipping in 11 for UNCA. For the game, Asheville shot only 32 percent from the field including a 2-12 (16 percent) performance from beyond the three-point line. The Bulldogs also committed 19 turnovers with 12 coming in the second half.
The Panthers outscored UNC Asheville, 13-4, over the opening five minutes of the second half to gain control of a close game. Back-to-back-to-back three-pointers from Troy Bowen and a pair by Mike Jefferson put HPU up by 10. High Point never looked back building its lead to as much as 19 several times en route to the impressive victory.
"This was a big win for us," said HPU head coach Bart Lundy. "A much needed win not only in conference play but also for our mental state of mind. I thought we had a great overall performance from the entire team and I saw some improvement and intensity on the defensive end. Hopefully we can build on this game as we start the second half of Big South play."
High Point maintained a slight edge for most of a hotly contested first half. HPU's largest lead was five (10-5) and UNC Asheville held a brief lead midway through the frame. Reid sparked the Panther offense finishing with 11 points in the stanza including seven of the team's first 10 points. The Bulldogs, who struggled shooting the ball making just 31.3 percent from the floor in the period, kept things close by out-rebounding HPU 24-16 and converting 11 offensive rebounds into 11 second-chance points. High Point owned a 26-24 advantage at the half.
The Panthers next return to the Millis Center for their lone home game over the next two weeks. Following a rematch with Radford, HPU hits the road with trips to Coastal Carolina, Charleston Southern and Birmingham-Southern.
