A sluggish start to the second half made all the difference for the High Point men's basketball team in a tough 77-64 loss to the University of Utah on Tuesday night in the opening round game of the Dick's Sporting Goods NIT Season Tip-Off West Bracket played at Washington's Bank of America Arena.

Panther senior forward Arizona Reid posted his second double-double of the season finishing with 19 points and 10 rebounds.  The Runnin' Utes were paced by 7'1 center Luke Nevill's 18 points and 10 boards.

"When we saw the schedule come out and we had Utah I don't think we thought they would be this tough and this good, this early," said HPU head coach Bart Lundy. "What we scouted was a team that was a bit soft from last year and a team you could pressure and get them out of things.  That is not the team that [Utah Head Coach Jim Boylen] has put together and I give coach Boylen a lot of credit.  They are tough, they are disciplined and they've got a good combination with [Luke] Nevill and all those guys that can shoot it.  You can't guard Nevill one-on-one and when we doubled him they did a good job of getting it out for extra passes and making shot. We got down and missed some shots early in the second half and they made some shots. We'll regroup and come back tomorrow night."

HPU (0-2) led a much bigger and taller Utah (2-0) squad through the opening 10 minutes of the first half and trailed by only four points at halftime. However, Utah scored the first eight points of the second half en route to a 16-5 run during the first five minutes of the period to seize control of the momentum.

"You have to give High Point credit," said Utah head coach Jim Boylen. "I think that team is very well coached and I respect what they do. They're banged up and they're small, but I thought they battled. In the second half we were dominating at times. It looked like we were pretty good offensively in the second half."

Reid scored back-to-back buckets to open the game as High Point grabbed a 7-3 advantage. The Utes battled back and knotted the score at 14. Mike Jefferson, who scored 17 points for the Panthers, hit one of his team-leading four treys to put HPU up 17-14. Utah rallied behind a 7-0 surge to retake a lead that they would not relinquish. The Panthers trailed by seven, 32-25, with a minute left in the first half but closed the frame with a three-pointer by Matt Boswell at the buzzer to trail just 32-28 at the break.

Utah shot 66.7 percent (16-24) from the floor in the second half as they built a lead as large as 23-points. The Utes connected on six three-pointers during the closing frame including back-to-back treys in their hot shooting start. The Panthers refused to quit and closed the game with a 9-0 run in the final minute to reduce the ending deficit.

For the game, Utah shot 54 percent from the floor and posted a 34-20 rebounding advantage including a 10-4 edge on the offensive end.

High Point will conclude their appearance at the NIT Season Tip-Off in the consolation game on Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. (PST) against the loser of tonight's nightcap between regional host University of Washington and New Jersey Tech.