Cold shooting in the second half was the difference as High Point dropped a hard-fought 62-54 loss to Winthrop on Saturday afternoon at Winthrop Coliseum.

HPU (13-10, 5-4 Big South) scored just 20 points in the second half as Winthrop (15-9, 6-3) overcame a halftime deficit and fought off a late Panther charge to move into second-place in the Big South Conference standings.

"This was a disappointing loss today," said HPU head coach Bart Lundy. "We have steadily improved over the last several games and I thought today we took a bit of a step back. We needed to be tougher and play through some of our individual struggles. I thought we had problems finding any kind of flow in the second half."

Mike Jefferson led the Panthers with 19 points and Arizona Reid, who faced double and triple teams all day, finished with 10 points, seven rebounds and a team-best four assists.

Mantoris Robinson scored 12 points and Taj McCullough added 10 for the Eagles.

Winthrop ran out to a quick 9-3 advantage to start the game. Jefferson, who scored 18 points in the first half, sparked a 12-2 run with eight points as HPU moved in front 17-13 with 14:04 left in the first period. The Eagles regained the lead but Jefferson stepped up again with a trey to push the Panthers back in the lead at the second media timeout.

From there the two teams traded the lead eight times and were tied five times before HPU closed with the final five points of the half to earn a 34-31 halftime advantage.

The Eagles outscored High Point 13-4 during the first eight minutes of the second half to seize the momentum at 44-38. Eugene Harris nailed a three-pointer for the Panthers to pull them to within three at 44-41. The Panthers suffered through a shooting slump over the next several minutes as Winthrop slowly built their lead to double digits, 54-44, with 5:51 to play.

High Point twice closed the deficit to six points including, 60-54, with 41 seconds remaining but Winthrop made just enough free throws down the stretch to secure the victory.

For the game, HPU shot 35.3 percent from the floor (18-51) while going 8-for-28 (28.6) from the three-point line. The Panther defense held Winthrop to just two treys in the game. The Eagles outshot High Point 31-12 from the free throw line and also held a 38-29 advantage on the boards.

High Point returns home for its next Big South contest hosting league-leading UNC Asheville on Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the Millis Athletic Center.