• High Point won its second-straight overtime contest with am 83-80 win at Winthrop on Saturday.
• Miles Bowman Jr. had 22 points and shot 6-7 from three while also grabbing 10 rebounds for his 11th double-double.
• The win is HPU’s fourth on the road in conference play and it extends the Panthers’ win streak to five in a row.
• High Point won its second-straight overtime contest with am 83-80 win at Winthrop on Saturday.
• Miles Bowman Jr. had 22 points and shot 6-7 from three while also grabbing 10 rebounds for his 11th double-double.
• The win is HPU’s fourth on the road in conference play and it extends the Panthers’ win streak to five in a row.
ROCK HILL, S.C. – The High Point University men’s basketball team earned its second overtime win in as many games with an 83-80 win at league leader Winthrop on Saturday afternoon in Rock Hill, S.C. The Panthers trailed by as much as 14 but battled back for their fourth road win in Big South play.
High Point trailed by six with 3:39 to play, but closed on a 9-3 run to tie the game at 75-75. A layup by senior Tarique Thompson and a three from senior Anthony Lindauer pulled HPU within one before Winthrop’s Keon Johnson answered with a three of his own to push the hosts up by four with 2:25 to go.
HPU held the Eagles scoreless the rest of the way and had a chance to tie or take the lead with 30 seconds remaining. Lindauer missed a jumper but Thompson grabbed the offensive board and went back up for the game-tying layup.
In the closing seconds, Johnson drove to the basket and launched a desperation layup at the buzzer that missed, sending the game into overtime.
After the Eagles went up on two free throws to start overtime, sophomore Andre Fox drained back-to-back baskets, putting HPU in front by two, 79-77, with 1:45 left. Winthrop closed to within one twice but could not pull ahead as Madison answered the first time with a layup then Fox hit a jumper the second time to push the lead back to three.
Winthrop had the ball with less than 10 seconds remaining when Johnson appeared to tie the game on a long 3-pointer, but the basket was waived off due to a Winthrop player calling time out just before the shot. Johnson got a contested three off with two seconds left that missed then after an offensive rebound and a time out, sophomore Ricky Madison blocked Johnson’s attempt at the buzzer to seal the Panther win.
“These games typically have been like this and this win feels good. I feel great and I am really excited for our team. We can’t thank enough the people that came down and supported us from High Point. We had a tremendous crowd behind us. Miles Bowman Jr. was a monster the way he was playing. He carried us for a lot of this game. This is a great win against a first-place team on the road. Now hopefully we can not get satisfied and continue to strive to be great.”
Redshirt-senior Miles Bowman scored a team-high 22 points and recorded his fourth-straight double-double with 10 rebounds. Bowman Jr. shot 7-13 from the floor and a career-best 6-7 from behind the arc.
Three other HPU players scored in double digits in the win as Thompson finished with 17, Lindauer had 15 and Fox scored 10, six in overtime. Freshman Jamal Wright matched his career high with a team-best seven assists.
Johnson led all scorers in the game with 31 on 11-18 shooting and Xavier Cooks finished with 19 points and eight rebounds for the Eagles.
The win was High Point’s fifth in a row and it improves the Panthers’ record to 12-10 overall and 6-4 in the Big South. Winthrop’s loss ends a seven-game win streak for the Eagles, dropping the, to 16-5 overall and 8-2 in the Big South.
Both sides traded buckets early on in the game and High Point led by one, 11-10, on a 3-pointer by Bowman Jr. with 14:44 left in the first half.
Winthrop slowly pulled away over the next 10 minutes, outscoring HPU by 15, 28-13 to build a 38-24 lead with 3:10 left in the half. An old-fashioned 3-point play by Thompson ended a 10-0 run by the Eagles and sparked a 9-0 run by HPU to close out the half as the Purple & White closed to within five at 38-33. Madison and junior Austin White both had baskets in the run and Thompson scored two more for the Panthers from the free throw line.
High Point carried the run into the second half as Bowman Jr. hit two-straight 3-pointers to start the period moving HPU into the lead at 39-38. After a Winthrop layup, HPU scored five more points on two buckers by Fox and a free throw by Wright to push the run to 20-2, taking a 44-40 lead.
The hosts came back with an 11-1 run culminating with a Johnson three that put Winthrop ahead 51-45 with 12 minutes to play. The Eagle lead continued to hover between two and six the rest of the way as HPU answered with a basket every time that Winthrop made it a two-possession game.
High Point remains on the road to start next week as the Panthers next travel to Farmville, Va,, to take on the Longwood Lancers on Wednesday, Feb. 1, at 7 p.m. HPU will try and avenge a 60-55 home loss to Longwood from earlier this season.