ROCK HILL, SC— Winthrop's winning streak came to an end at seven games as it fell 83-80 in overtime to High Point, Saturday afternoon at the Winthrop Coliseum.

The Eagles fall to 16-5 overall and 8-2 in the Big South while High Point improves to 12-10 on the year and 6-4 in the league. Winthrop will look to rebound on Wednesday, Feb. 1 when it heads to Radford, VA to take on the Highlanders at 7 p.m.

The game was tied at 75-75 at the end of regulation and came down to the final possession like games in this series often do. The Panthers went up 83-80 with 19 seconds left after Andre Fox hit a contested jumper that hit the front rim, backboard and then fell in. After a timeout by the Eagles with eight seconds left, Keon Johnson fired a three that rattled in-and-out as Xavier Cooks came away with the rebound and called timeout with 2.2 seconds left. Johnson got a solid look from the corner off the inbound, but it hit off the front rim and short. In the last 12 meetings, seven of the games have come down to the final possession and two others were decided by six points or less.

Johnson led all scorers with 31 points as he was 11-for-18 from the field, 5-for-7 from three. Cooks finished with 19 points, eight rebounds, three assists and five blocks. Tevin Prescott was also in double-figures with 10 points off the bench. Winthrop finished the game shooting 46 percent from the floor, which included 7-for-16 behind the arc.

Winthrop grabbed the lead in overtime after Bjorn Broman knocked down a couple of free throws. The Eagles got a couple stops defensively but turnovers on the offensive end on back-to-back possessions eventually led to a layup by Fox to tie the game. Fox gave the Panthers the lead at 79-77 on a jumper as he finished with six points in overtime. High Point led 81-78 with 1:09 left and Prescott made it a one-point game again on a jumper with 41 seconds to play.

High Point captured its fifth straight win as four players finished in double-figures. Miles Bowman Jr. led the way with 22 points and 10 rebounds. The Panthers received two good scoring efforts from its bench as Tarique Thompson scored 17 and Anthony Lindauer added 15. The Panthers shot 47 percent for the game and 20-for-35 from the floor after halftime.

The second half started the way the first one ended as the Panthers scored the first six points and eventually took a four-point lead four minutes in. Johnson caught fire and scored 12 straight points to help the Eagles lead by six with 11:05 to play.

It was close the remainder of the half as the Eagles continued to try and pull away but the Panthers continued to make shots and scored the final four points of regulation to force overtime.

The first half saw the Eagles build a 14-point lead with 3:10 left after Johnson hit a pair of free throws. High Point stormed back with a 9-0 run to end the half, cutting it to a 38-33 Winthrop lead at the break. The two teams went back and forth in the first half until the Eagles used a 10-0 run that started with 5:54 left in the half. Prescott started the run as Johnson finished with six of the 10 points.

EXTRA DRIBBLE
-Keon Johnson hit the 30-point mark for the eighth time in his career (Now has 33 games with 20 or more)
-Johnson scored 20 of his 31 points in the second half (his 7th career game with 20 or more in the 2nd half)
-Cooks tied his career-high with five blocks and now has 138 in his career, which is one shy of second all-time (held by Josh Grant, who started the year as the program's all-time shot blocker before he was passed by Duby Okeke)
-Winthrop is now 0-3 all-time against the Panthers with all three games coming down to the last possession
-The Eagles are now 36-6 in the last 42 games at home