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The High Point University men's basketball team held Winthrop without a point over the final 5:23 to run away with a 64-54 win over the Eagles in Big South action at the Millis Center Thursday night. Senior guard
Shay Shine led HPU on the night with 16 points, including 11 in the second half.
"This is a big win. We wanted to get back on track after we let one slip away at Gardner-Webb last weekend," said HPU head coach
Scott Cherry. "Our guys did a great job closing out the last five or six minutes, keeping them from scoring and we were able to convert on the offensive end. We played well defensively and everyone contributed."
The Panthers closed the game on a 10-0 run, with eight points coming on free throws, to pick up the win.
Shine got his 16 points on 5-for-7 shooting, including 3-for-4 from three-point range and added five rebounds. Redshirt-junior
Corey Law grabbed a game-high eight rebounds to go along with 14 points, two blocks and two steals. Junior forward
Branimir Mikulic also finished in double-digits on the night with 11 points while also grabbing six rebounds.
Reggie Middleton and George Valentine both came away with double-digit points for Winthrop, scoring 15 and 13 respectively. Valentine led the team with seven boards. High Point held Big South scoring-leader Andre Jones to just eight points on 2-for-13 shooting in the contest.
High Point improved 7-9 overall and 3-3 in the Big South while Winthrop fell to 6-11 overall and 3-3 in league play. The Panthers have won three out of their last four games.
With the game tied at 54-54, Law grabbed an offensive board and jumped up between three defenders to slam it home to put High Point up by two. Sophomore point guard
Xavier Martin and Law each hit a pair of free throws to extend the lead to six points with 1:44 remaining. HPU sealed the game with a steal by Shine followed by four more Panther free throws to go up by 10.
Law scored six of the first seven points of the game for High Point on two layups and two free throws, to give the Panthers out to a 6-1 lead. Winthrop came back to take its first lead, 10-8, on a Jerome Joab jumper with 11:30 left in the first half.
With the score tied 12-12, Joab hit a free throw and the Eagles led the rest of the half, but got no separation from the Panthers. Winthrop led by four in the last minute of the half before Shine hit a three-pointer from the corner to make it 28-27 at halftime.
Coming out of the break, Jones hit a layup to give Winthrop a 30-27 lead, but Shine responded right back with a trey to tie the game for the first time since early in the first half. High Point retook the lead two minutes later when
Nick Barbour stole the ball and found Law for a layup, making the score 34-32 with 16:04 remianing. High Point built its lead to as large as 10 points with 7:58 remaining before Winthrop battled back to tie the game. HPU was then able to go on its 10-0 run to finish the game.
The Panthers outrebounded Winthrop, 18-10, while shooting 56.3 percent in the second half. The Panthers outrebounded the Eagles 36-25 for the game.
HPU is back in action when it hosts UNC Asheville on Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Millis Center. The Bulldogs are undefeated at 6-0 in Big South play this season. It's the second half of a double-header, with the HPU women's basketball team playing Coastal Carolina at 4 p.m.
