No. 12 High Point defeats No. 5 Wisconsin 83-82 in first-round NCAA men's tournament game
Authored by destined2win.net, 20 Mar 2026
High Point University rallied from a double-digit deficit to beat Wisconsin 83-82 on March 19, 2026, at the Moda Center in Portland, Oregon, in the first round of the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament.
The victory marked the first NCAA tournament win in school history for the Panthers, a program from High Point, North Carolina, that competes in the Big South Conference.[1] High Point had entered the tournament after winning the Big South title for the second straight season and following a first-round loss to Purdue the previous year.
High Point guard Chase Johnston scored the game-winning layup with 11.7 seconds remaining after grabbing a rebound from Wisconsin guard Nick Boyd's missed layup and outlet pass from teammate Rob Martin. The layup was Johnston's first two-point field goal of the season.
Wisconsin's Owen Aquino then blocked Boyd's drive, and High Point's Cam'Ron Fletcher missed a free throw. With 1.8 seconds left, Terry Anderson intercepted Andrew Rohde's long inbound pass to seal the win.
Johnston finished with 14 points, including four 3-pointers, for High Point, which entered as 10.5-point underdogs.
High Point head coach Flynn Clayman said after the game: "It looks pretty obvious to me that high-majors need to play mid-majors early in the season. Because they said we didn't play nobody. We played somebody now. I know how good of a team we are. But nobody would play us, just like they wouldn't play Miami (Ohio). But they gotta play us in this tournament."
High Point's regular-season schedule featured mostly mid-major opponents.
Sources
- Wikipedia. "High Point Panthers men's basketball". Accessed October 2024. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Point_Panthers_men%27s_basketball
- Wikipedia. "Moda Center". Accessed October 2024. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moda_Center
- NCAA. "2026 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament" (tournament format reference). Accessed October 2024. https://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-men-d1/article/2024-03-17/2024-ncaa-di-mens-basketball-first-round-bracket-schedule-scores