The High Point University men's basketball team turned up the defensive heat en route to handing the visiting Liberty Flames a 67-53 loss on Wednesday night at the Millis Athletic Center.

The Panthers (13-9, 5-3 Big South) avenged a four-point loss at Liberty (12-11, 4-4) just 10 days ago by holding the Flames to two fewer points than the first time while pouring in 16 more points themselves. High Point also captured the rebounding battle on Wednesday night (32-30) after trailing by double digits on the glass last time.

Senior Arizona Reid matched his season averages in the game finishing with 23 points and 11 rebounds. Reid posted his Big South leading 16th double-double in pacing the Panthers. Fellow senior Mike Jefferson added 16 points and eight assists while fighting off flu symptoms. Sophomore Eugene Harris chipped in 13 points and handed out seven assists with Cruz Daniels dropping in eight points along with eight rebounds and five blocked shots.

Liberty got 19 points and 13 rebounds from Alex McLean in the loss with Anthony Smith adding 13 points.

"I thought we played extremely well on the defensive end tonight," said HPU head coach Bart Lundy. "This was a great win for us against a very talented Liberty squad. It is very important for us to start the second half of the Big South schedule with a victory. I thought we had a very balanced offensive attack with several players making major contributions for us. We continue to get better and that is important at this time of the season."

HPU scored the first five points and limited the Flames to just two points over the opening five minutes of the contest. Reid, who scored 15 points in the first half, scored six straight points to help the Panthers build a 21-13 lead at the 10:48 mark. Liberty answered with three consecutive treys from Kyle Ohman, TeeJay Bannister and Smith to grab their first and only lead of the night (22-21) with seven minutes to play.

It was a short lived advantage for the Flames as Tim Burns drilled a three less than a minute later sparking HPU on a 15-6 run to close the half. High Point held a 36-28 halftime lead after forcing seven Liberty turnovers and holding the Flames to just 11-28 shooting (39.3 percent) from the floor.

An early Liberty surge in the second half allowed the Flames to close to within five points, 45-40, but a pair of buckets from Reid and a dunk by Daniels pushed the Panthers back in front by double-digits. High Point held a double-figure advantage for much of the rest of the contest leading by as much as 18 points on their way to the victory.

For the game, High Point blistered the nets at a 52 percent clip including a 9-for-20 performance from long distance. The Panther defense limited Liberty to just 35.8 percent shooting for the game.

With their win and Winthrop's loss at Coastal Carolina on Wednesday, High Point is currently tied for second place in the Big South standings with the Eagles heading into Saturday's rematch in Rock Hill. The Panthers defeated Winthrop in the first meeting of the year.  The HPU-WU game is scheduled to tip at 1 p.m. on Saturday from the Winthrop Coliseum and will be televised live by SportSouth.