HPU men seek strong finish

Feb. 24—HIGH POINT — Encouraged by their recent improved play at home, the High Point University men's basketball team looks to take it on the road in their regular-season finale today at Winthrop and in next week's Big South Conference tournament at Bojangles Coliseum in Charlotte.

The Panthers were better in all four of their February games in Qubein Arena, beating Charleston Southern 81-73 on Feb, 4, staging a huge comeback in a close loss to Longwood on Feb. 11, then posting back-to-back wins in their two most recents games, dominating USC Upstate 81-66 last Saturday and coming from 18 down to defeat Radford 69-64 on Wednesday.

Combined with a win on the road at Presbyterian before the Upstate game, the Panthers are riding a three-game winning streak, their best stretch since starting the season 8-1. They sit at 14-15 overall and 6-11 in the conference while in pursuit of the program's first winning season since going 16-15 in 2018-19.

"Ever since Longwood, we've played better overall," Smith said. "In practice this week, just being around the guys, they are happy and have this feeling like we're back in California, like we were playing early in the year. That's a good feeling, because the guys were playing with a lot of confidence and we were playing really well at that time of the year. Hopefully, guys are understanding that's how we'll have to play if we want to win this thing."

The challenge for the Panthers is taking their good play on the road. They grinded in the win over Presbyterian, which was their first conference triumph and second overall on an opponent's home court this season.

HPU is just 5-18 at Winthrop Coliseum all time, with the last victory in the 2016-17 season, before any of the current players or Smith were part of the program.

"We haven't won at Winthrop since I've been here," Smith said. "We have to figure out a way to get that win to keep the momentum going heading into the tournament. If we can get four wins in a row, that would be great. Three out of four would be good, too. We want to make sure we're playing our best ball going into the tournament next week."

Zack Austin led the Panthers in the Jan. 18 game with 19 points and has been one of the reasons for the team's resurgence, having scored at least 10 points or more in each of the 10 games since. WInthrop held Austin scoreless in the conference quarterfinal last year.

Austin helped seal Wednesday's win against Radford with a fastbreak dunk.

"His versatility amazes me," Smith said. "He's not a physical guy, He's a pick-and-pop. He stretches the floor. He can shoot the 3, is unbelievable in transition and a great shot blocker. We need him to play well. Last year in the tournament, he had a big game against Hampton and then went 0 for 11 in the quarterfinals and didn't score a point. He wants to prove that he's better than that. He's been practicing well. He's been shooting well in practice. He's an X-factor for us, so we need him to stay in the game without fouling and keep dunking on people."

HPU, which defeated Winthrop 71-66 in the Qubein Center on Jan. 18, is guaranteed of playing in the first round conference tournament against Charleston Southern. WInthrop (14-16, 9-8 Big South) will be either the 5 or 6 seed.