Last year, the High Point Panthers’ men’s basketball program reached a new high point. It made it to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history.
But that was then. There’s a new zenith right now. HPU notched a 83-82 comeback upset win over Wisconsin in Portland on Thursday afternoon for the program’s first NCAA tournament victory.
“Seems pretty obvious to me that high majors need to play mid majors earlier in the season, because they said we ain’t played nobody, well we played somebody
now,” first-year High Point head coach Flynn Clayman said in his on-court postgame interview.
Not only was this High Point’s first tournament win, but it was the Panthers’ (31-4) first win over a Power Conference opponent in 58 tries. It was the second time in the past three seasons that Wisconsin has lost to a mid-major team that wears purple (James Madison two seasons ago).
“I knew how good of a team we had,” Clayman said, with his rowdy team celebrating behind him, “But nobody would play us, just like they wouldn’t play Miami of Ohio. But they gotta play us in this tournament.”
High Point led for just over 1:30 of the second half. It took the lead on three-point specialist Chase Johnston’s first two-point basket of the season (yes, that is verified as True) with just 11 seconds to play, on a fast-break opportunity following a Wisconsin missed layup.
“We kept fighting when we went down 10 points early in the first half, but I’m so proud of us, man, we went through so much,” Rob Martin, who led HPU with 23 points, said.
Wisconsin held a 70-62 lead as the clock ticked under five minutes, but back-to-back threes from Johnston and Terry Anderson made it a two-point game. With the lead at four with just over a minute to play, HPU cut it to one on a Johnston three before his game-winning layup.
Anderson finished with 15 points and 11 rebounds, Cam’ron Fletcher had 14 points and 11 rebounds, and Johnston logged 14 on 4-of-6 shooting from behind the arc.
Wisconsin held a 15-5 lead in the first half before the margin was trimmed to two points at the break. Nick Boyd had 27 points, including 18 in the second half. John Blackwell scored 22 for the Badgers (24-11) but only two after halftime.
