HIGH POINT, NC— Winthrop men's basketball suffered an 87-85 road loss at High Point, Thursday evening at the Millis Center.
The Eagles winning streak ends at four games as they are now 20-8 on the year and 12-5 in the league. High Point improves to 19-9 overall and 12-5 in Big South as both teams are tied for first place in the league. Winthrop will wrap-up the regular season on Saturday at 2 p.m. when it travels to Buies Creek, NC to take on Campbell.
For the third straight time at the Millis Center, a Winthrop and High Point game came down to the final possession. Trailing by two points the Eagles had a couple of opportunities in the final 20 seconds of the game to tie or take the lead. The first one came as
Jimmy Gavin made his way to the basket on the baseline he was whistled for a travel. Then the Eagles forced a turnover on the inbound with six seconds to play. After calling timeout, Winthrop set up
Keon Johnson with a three in the corner that was contested and hit the back of the iron and then was tipped to
Xavier Cooks near the elbow as he turned and threw up a shot that hit off the left side of the rim as time expired.
Winthrop rallied from a 15-point second half deficit to take an 82-80 lead with 2:56 to play in the game as Cooks completed a three-point play. High Point then took the lead on an Adam Weary three from the wing and then
Zach Price hit one-of-two free throws to with 2:35 left. High Point grabbed an 85-83 lead with two Miles Bowman Jr. free throws and then Cooks tried to tie the game with a jumper in the lane but it fell short and Weary knocked down a jumper on the other end for a four-point lead as that basket turned out to be the game-winner.
Johnson led the Eagles with 25 points on 9-for-16 shooting and Gavin finished with 20 points, all of which came in the first half. Cooks spent the first half in foul trouble and didn't score but posted 14 points in the second half and Price chipped in with 10 points. As a team the Eagles shot 54 percent from the floor in the game, which is the ninth times doing so in 17 league games.
The Panthers opened the second half hitting 7-of-10 shots and building a 62-47. Winthrop responded with a 13-2 run behind five points from Johnson and Cooks. Johnson put the finishing touches on the run with three made free throws with 12:28 to play. Johnson made it a four-point game after driving down the heart of the lane for a layup. High Point did extend the lead back to double-figures at 78-68 with a little over eight minutes left as Weary completed a three-point play. The Eagles had another run in them as they outscored the Panthers 12-2 to grab their first lead of the game on the three-point play by Cooks.
Weary led the Panthers with 24 points on 10-for-16 shooting and John Brown scored all of his 19 points in the first half before missing the entire second half with an injury. Bowman Jr. chipped in with 15 points and 11 rebounds. The Panthers shot 51 percent from the floor in the game and finished with a 54-42 advantage on points in the paint.
High Point came out of the gate knocking down its first six shots and didn't cool off as it shot 69 percent in the first half for a 47-42 lead at the break. The Eagles also shot well from the floor at 59 percent, but nine turnovers led to a 14-3 advantage for the Panthers in points off turnovers.
Winthrop trailed 11-4 early, but used a 12-5 run to tie the game at 16-16 with 12:55 left in the half after Gavin knocked down a three from the wing. High Point then reeled off four straight points and then Gavin cut the deficit to one with another three. However, the Panthers went on a 10-2 run that ended with three straight baskets from Brown. Brown ended up scoring on five straight possessions, with the final one putting High Point up 34-27 with a little over seven minutes left in the half.
