Despite 21 points and nine rebounds from two-time Big South Player of the Year Arizona Reid and a furious second half rally, the High Point University men's basketball team saw their 2007-08 se
ason come to an end with a 61-53 loss to Winthrop in the semifinals of the Big South Conference Tournament on Thursday night at the Justice Center.

High Point closes the year with a 17-14 overall record while Winthrop moved to 21-11 and advances to Saturday's Big South Conference championship game against the winner of Thursday's second semifinal between No. 1 seed UNC Asheville and No. 4 seed Liberty.

Reid, the Big South's all-time leading rebounder and fourth ranked career scorer, ends his historic HPU career with 2,069 points and 1,013 rebounds. This season Reid became the first player in League history to reach the prestigious 2,000 point/1,000 rebound club and he was also the first Conference performer to average over 20 points and 10 rebounds per game.

In addition to Reid, High Point also got 21 points from sophomore Eugene Harris, who connected on seven three-pointers. Senior Mike Jefferson added nine points and a team best six assists ending his career as HPU's assist leader with 470.

Michael Jenkins scored 14 points to lead Winthrop followed by 12 points each by Mantoris Robinson and Chris Gaynor. Taj McCullough paced the Eagles on the glass with seven boards.

HPU scored the first five points of the game, before Winthrop answered with the next 12 points. A Reid jumper at 13:36 ended that Eagle run. Winthrop opened up a double-digit lead over the next stretch of the game as HPU point went scoreless for over five minutes with Reid again halting a WU surge with a basket. The Eagles closed the half on an 11-3 run to own a 33-18 halftime lead.

The 18 points for High Point marked a season low for a half and consisted of nine points each for Reid and Harris.

The Panthers regrouped at the break and began to chip away at their deficit. High Point closed to within nine points with 6:06 remaining on a pair of free throws by Cruz Daniels. HPU had several chances over the next few minutes to cut into the Winthrop lead even more, but just were not able to make the shot that would push them over the hump.

HPU got as close as seven points in the closing minute, but the Eagles made eight of nine free throws down the stretch to hold on for the victory. The Panthers outscored Winthrop 35-28 in the second half.