High Point junior Arizona Reid scored 22 points and grabbed nine rebounds in leading the Panthers to a 62-48 win over long-time rival Elon on Monday night in front of a crowd of 1,138 at the Millis Athletic Center.
With the win, HPU improves to 5-3 on the year and have now won eight consecutive home games including all four this season. Elon, who falls to 1-6 on the season, loses its fifth straight game and second in a row to the Panthers.
Reid, who scored a season low three points on Saturday, rebounded with his fourth 20-point performance of the season connecting on 9-of-16 shot attempts versus the Phoenix.
Sophomore Troy Bowen finished with 11 points, hitting a trio of three-pointers, and junior Jerald Minnis added 10 to give HPU three double-digit scorers in the game. Senior Landon Quick handed out a season-high seven assists and redshirt freshman Cruz Daniels continued his solid play in the paint recording four shot blocks.
Brett James led the Phoenix with 15 points and six rebounds followed by 11 points and four steals by LeVonn Jordan, who returned to the Elon lineup for the first time in three games. EU committed 26 turnovers while dishing out only three assists in the game.
"I thought the difference was our defensive intensity," said HPU head coach Bart Lundy. "We played solid on the defensive end all night long. We did a few things well on the offensive end but just committed a few too many turnovers and struggled at free throw line. We made a nice run early in the second half and that seemed to give us the lift we needed."
Elon grabbed the early advantage and maintained a lead until High Point used an 11-0 run over a three-minute span from the 15 to the 12 minute mark in the first half. HPU moved from 7-4 down to 15-7 up over the stretch and never relinquished the lead.
High Point built a nine-point advantage at the break holding the Phoenix to just 19 first half points to head to the lockeroom up 28-19.
A 20-3 surge by HPU over the opening six minutes of the second period all but closed the game as Elon would get no closer than the final 14-point deficit the remainder of the contest.
HPU held its second consecutive opponent a point total in the 40s while limiting Elon to just 34.9 percent shooting from the field including a 5-for-20 (25 percent) first half performance. High Point finished at 46.2 percent highlighted by a 13-for-22 (59.1 percent) showing in the closing 20 minutes.
The Phoenix were able to earn a slight 32-31 advantage in the battle of rebounding and benefited from a 7-for-18 (38.9 percent) performance from the free throw line by the Panthers.
High Point concludes its three-games-in-five-days stretch on Wednesday at 7 p.m. against the Longwood Lancers at the Millis Center.
