Box Score
Box Score

ROCK HILL, SC--High Point outscored Winthrop 13-0 over the final five minutes of the game to claim a 52-47 Big South Conference win on Saturday before 3,065 fans in the Winthrop Coliseum. The win was only the second in 15 games for the Panthers at Winthrop.

Winthrop led 47-39 with 4:56 remaining in the game, but missed all 10 of its field goal attempts to open the door for High Point which trailed for 38 minutes and 49 seconds of the game before taking a 49-47 lead on two free throws by Shay Shine who scored a game-high 23 points. 

Winthrop saw its record drop to 9-14 overall and to 6-6 in Big South play while High Point improves to 8-14 and 4-8 in the league and snapped a five-game losing streak with its second victory over the Eagles in two weeks. The Panthers have now won seven of the last 11 meetings with Winthrop, but still trail in the all-time series 24-8.

It was tough loss for the Eagles to swallow as they held HPU to 32 percent shooting from the field (16-50).  Winthrop, however, was even worse as it connected on a season-low 28 percent  (17 of 60).  The Eagles came out ready to play as they took an early 8-point lead at 15-7 after Matt Morgan's 3-point play with 13:26 left in the first half.  Winthrop led by as many as 12 at 27-15 following two free throws by Andre Jones with 3:58 remaining and went to halftime holding a 30-22 lead.

Winthrop's first half defense held High Point to 21 percent (6 of 29), but the Panthers came back to shoot 47 percent in the final period (10-21) and connected on all three of its shots over the final 3:37 of the game.  Nick Barbour, the league's leading scorer coming into the game, hit a 3-pointer to tie the game at 47-47 with 2:08 left.  He finished the game with 14 points after going 4 of 5 from three land.

"This was a tough, tough loss," said Winthrop head coach Randy Peele.  "Our guys played hard and deserved to win this game.  It's especially hard to take when our guys did everything we asked of them defensively.  To hold a team to 52 points and 32 percent shooting and lose is tough."

After Shine gave his team the 49-47 lead, Winthrop had a chance to tie the game, but Gideon Gamble's baseline jumper went halfway down and came out with 40 seconds left.  Justin Cheek was fouled on the rebound and put the Panthers up by four with two more free throws in the final 35 seconds to make it  two possesion game.

Winthrop was led in scoring by Reggie Middleton with 15 while Morgan finished with 13 points and a career-high 12 rebounds to earn his second career double-double.  Jones, who was held to a season-low seven points at High Point two weeks ago had another off night as he finished with nine and was 3 for 14 shooting from the floor and is now a combined 5-27 in two games against the Panthers this season.

Winthrop did manage to win the rebound battle 41-40 with George Valentine grabbing nine to tie High Point's Corey Law for game-high honors. 

Winthrop will go on the road next week for two games as the Eagles travel to Radford on Thursday, Feb. 2, and face VMI on Saturday.