HPU Men’s Basketball Takes Road Loss To Wofford

SPARTANBURG, S.C. — The High Point University men’s basketball team took an 81-53 loss to Wofford on Monday night at Benjamin Johnson Arena in Spartanburg, S.C. Sophomore guard Adam Weary scored a career-high 21 points.

“Our confidence isn’t where it needs to be right now,” said HPU head coach Scott Cherry. “We missed some open shots in the first half and dug ourselves into a huge hole. We need to get back to practice and improve, especially on defense, going into conference play.”

Weary shot 8-for-15 from the floor and 5-for-6 from the line. His previous career high was 19 points against Charleston Southern on Jan. 19, 2013. Redshirt-sophomore John Brown scored 14 points (13 in the second half) with six rebounds.

Wofford was led by junior Karl Cochran, who scored 23 points with five treys and 10 rebounds. He scored his 1,000th career point in the game. Freshman guard Eric Garcia hit three treys en route to 13 points and two others scored 12 points.

The teams split a two-game regular-season series. High Point got a 66-56 win over Wofford on Nov. 24 at the Millis Center. High Point fell to 3-9 while Wofford improved to 5-7.

High Point shot just 6-for-29 (20.7 percent) while Wofford shot 15-for-27 (55.6 percent) from the floor in the first half, leading to a 38-15 Wofford edge at halftime. After High Point took an early 10-7 lead, the lid went on HPU’s basket as C.J. Neumann finished a two-and-one to spark a 15-0 run that made it 22-10 in favor of the Terriers.

Cochran scored the first basket of the second half, a layup that made it 40-15, before the Panthers went on a 9-3 run. A Weary two-and-one started it before Lorenzo Cugini hit a jumper from the left side. Weary hit a fast-break layup to make it 43-24 but Wofford responded with two buckets in a row, the first a three-pointer by Cochran from the corner and then a layup by Cochran off a steal that made it 48-24. Brown scored the next six points to make it an 18-point gap, which was the closest HPU would get.

Wofford outrebounded HPU 44-28 and shot 53.4 percent (31-for-58) from the floor in the game.

It was the fourth of four-straight road games for the Panthers. High Point is back at the Millis Center for the first time since Dec. 14 when HPU takes on Lees-McRae on Friday at 7 p.m.