The High Point men's basketball team opened up a first half advantage but came up short in holding off a charging Winthrop squad falling 72-60 on Tuesday night at Winthrop Coliseum.
In a tale of two halves, the Panthers (20-9, 10-3 Big South) built a double-digit opening half lead on the conference leading Eagles (24-4, 13-0) before their fortunes reversed in the second half allowing Winthrop to earn a regular season title and top seed at next week's Big South Conference Tournament.
High Point busted open a closely contested first half over the final six minutes. Trailing by one 24-21 with 6:32 left, HPU closed the half with a 17-4 run that included a stretch of 13 consecutive points. Freshman Tim Burns 10 of his 12 first half points in the surge including a pair of treys and a layup with nine seconds left to cap the scoring and send the Panthers to the lockeroom with a 39-28 advantage.
HPU connected on 15-of-27 first half shot attempts (55.6 percent) and made four three-pointers while holding Winthrop to just 36 percent shooting on 11-of-30 from the floor in the frame.
"We really did a great job of running our offense in the first half," said HPU head coach Bart Lundy. "We were executing our game plan pretty well."
Arizona Reid scored a bucket on the Panther's first possession of the second half, but HPU then missed its next six shot attempts and committed three turnovers as Winthrop used a 12-0 run to grab a one-point lead, 42-41, with 13:42 left to play.
The two squads traded the lead a couple times and Eugene Harris hit the second of back-to-back treys for HPU putting them up 47-44 at 11:52. The Eagles rallied and knotted the score at 50 with just under 10 minutes remaining then built a four-point lead 57-53 at the 6:37 mark. Harris drilled another three-pointer to pull the Panthers to within one, but High Point would get no closer as WU made clutch shots and free throws down the stretch. Winthrop outscored High Point 13-4 to close the game.
"As good as we were in the first half," added Lundy. "We struggled that much in the second half. I give Winthrop credit because they did a good job of keeping us away from the things that we did successfully in the first half. They were just tougher both physically and mentally than us down the stretch."
The Eagles matched the Panthers shooting success in the second half with their own 15-for-27 performance. High Point did hold the Big South's leading three-point shooting team to just 2-of-16 (12.5 percent) from long range. However, Winthrop the conference's worst free throw shooting squad went a perfect 13-of-13 from the charity stripe in the decisive second half.
Reid, HPU's junior standout, led the team with 16 points and nine rebounds. Burns finished with a career high 15 points while Mike Jefferson chipped in 10 points and six assists for the Panthers.
Four of Winthrop's five starters tallied double-digits on the night led by senior Craig Bradshaw's 19-point performance. Fellow senior Phillip Williams recorded a 16-point/10-rebound double-double in the final regular season home appearance.
High Point closes out its regular season slate on Saturday against VMI at 7 p.m. in the Millis Athletic Center. The game will mark the final regular season home contest for lone HPU senior Landon Quick, who will be honored in a pre-game ceremony.
