PORTLAND, Ore. — Chase Johnston made his first 2-point basket of the season with 11.7 seconds remaining and 12th-seeded High Point earned its first NCAA Tournament win with an 83-82 victory over Wisconsin in the West Region on Thursday.
Panthers forward Owen Aquino blocked Nick Boyd’s driving layup with 2.1 seconds left remaining and Cam’Ron Fletcher missed the front end of a one-and-one, but the Panthers’ Terry Anderson intercepted Wisconsin’s full-court pass to end the game.
Boyd had 27 points and John Blackwell scored 20 of his 22 points in the first half for fifth-seeded Wisconsin (24-11), which has lost its last four NCAA appearances as a No. 5 seed.
Johnston had 14 points, 11 in the second half, and was 4 of 6 from distance. He has made 69 field goals this season, 68 3-pointers.
“It’s such justice that he gets all this national attention for never making a 2-point shot all season, and the first one he makes is to get us to this point in the NCAA Tournament,” High Point coach Flynn Clayman said after the win.
“I was just like, ‘Just get this in the rim. We can go shock the world if we do this,'” Johnston said.
Rob Martin had a team-high 23 points and 10 assists, Anderson had 15 points and 11 rebounds and Fletcher had 14 and 11 for the Panthers (31-4), who were making their second tournament appearance in school history, their second straight. They’ll face No. 4 seed Arkansas in the second round.
Austin Rapp scored 12 points for Badgers, who led 70-62 on Boyd’s layup with seven minutes left before Johnston and Anderson made threes to cut the deficit to 70-68.
Boyd’s layup gave the Badgers an 82-78 lead before Johnston hit a three. Wisconsin could not get the ball in bounds with 54.6 seconds remaining, but Aquino missed a short shot to give Wisconsin possession.
Boyd missed a layup with 16 seconds remaining, and Johnston broke free to take a long pass for his winning layup.
High Point made 15 of 40 3-pointers. Johnston and Martin made four, and Fletcher hit three.
The Badgers were 9 of 23 from distance (39.1%) after living on the perimeter most of the season. They made 400 3-pointers entering the tournament, the second-most in NCAA Division I behind Alabama (405).
“The 3-point shooting, yes, I mean, we’ve seen Johnston make some circus ones today off one leg,” Wisconsin coach Greg Gard said. “It’s exactly what I saw on film. His ability to shoot the ball and get it off quick. … They hit timely threes. Fletcher hits one. Anderson I believe hit one. They bank in one. So it took that type of 15 threes for them to be able to counter what we were doing. It’s a credit to them.
“You can take ‘em, but they were able to knock ‘em down.”
Wisconsin led 15-5 on Blackwell’s 3-pointer five minutes into the game as High Point missed nine of its first 10 three-point attempts. Fletcher’s three with 1:11 left in the first half tied it at 39-39 before Blackwell’s layup gave the Badgers a 41-39 lead at half.
–Jack Magruder, Field Level Media
