Winthrop buries High Point with 3-point barrage

Winthrop grabbed its first win in High Point, N.C. in 10 years on Wednesday night.

The Eagles (10-4, 2-1 Big South) last won at the High Point Panthers’ Millis Center in 2007 and had dropped eight of the last 10 games against Scott Cherry’s program overall. But Winthrop hit 17 3-pointers Wednesday night, tying a school record, en route to an 80-74 win over the Panthers.

Keon Johnson led all scorers with 27 points, his seventh game in the last eight with more than 20 points, while Xavier Cooks added 21 and 11 rebounds for his fourth double-double of the season. Bjorn Broman chipped in 15 points, hitting 5 of 7 shots from beyond the arc. Johnson was 7 for 8.

Where the Eagles were 17 of 34 from 3-point range, the hosts made just 3 of 19. High Point had four scorers in double figures, led by Tarique Thompson and Miles Bowman Jr., who both had 15.

Winthrop took a 40-32 lead into the half thanks to an 11-0 run midway through the period. The Eagles were red-hot from 3-point range in the first 20 minutes, knocking down 10 of 20 from beyond the arc to build a lead. Broman made all four of his first half triples, and his brother, Anders, made two more. The 10 3-pointers was more than the Eagles made in eight of their previous 13 games.

High Point (7-8, 1-2) charged back early in the second half. Winthrop grew its halftime advantage to 14 points (52-38), before the Panthers scored 11 of the game’s next 13 points to cut the deficit to 54-49 with about 13 minutes to play, and to just three several minutes later. Johnson answered with consecutive 3-pointers to stretch the Eagles’ lead back out to nine points.

High Point again hacked the lead to one possession with about five minutes to play, only for Bjorn Broman to bang in another 3 to stretch it back out to six. Winthrop’s lead was whittled down to one with less than two minutes left, but the Eagles answered again, Joshua Davenport scoring with just a few seconds left on the shot clock to make it 77-74 with 1 minute, 11 seconds left.

Foul trouble saddled the Eagles late - Johnson and Cooks both ended the game with four - but they held on for a rare road win in High Point. Winthrop hosts Longwood Saturday at 4 p.m.

This story was originally published January 4, 2017 at 9:07 PM with the headline "Winthrop buries High Point with 3-point barrage."