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Canisius University Athletics

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Tre Dinkins brings the ball up the floor in a men's basketball game at Pitt on Dec. 9, 2023.
Anthony Militello
70
Canisius Canis 6-6,1-1 MAAC
78
Winner High Point HP 10-4,0-0 Big South
Canisius Canis
6-6,1-1 MAAC
70
Final
78
High Point HP
10-4,0-0 Big South
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Canisius Canis 35 35 70
High Point HP 38 40 78

Game Recap: Men's Basketball |

Late Surge Leads High Point Over Men’s Basketball

The host High Point Panthers used an 9-3 run over the final 2:43 of regulation time to record a 78-70 victory over Canisius in men's basketball action Friday night at the Qubein Center in High Point, N.C. The win, High Point's second straight, improved the Panthers to 10-4 on the season, while the Golden Griffins fell to 6-6 on the year with their second-straight defeat.
 
Canisius junior Tre Dinkins scored a career-high 25 points on the night to lead all scorers in the losing cause. Dinkins went 9-for-19 from the field, 5-for-11 from 3-point land and he made both of his chances from the free-throw line to go along with four assists in 40:00 of action on Friday. Junior Frank Mitchell added 14 points, seven rebounds and four assists to the Griffs' effort, while senior Siem Uijtendaal chipped in 12 points, three assists, three steals and two blocked shots. For the game, Canisius shot 45.8 percent from the floor, made 10-of-21 tries from behind the 3-point arc and hit on 6-of-8 chances from the charity stripe, but the team was out-rebounded by High Point by a 40-26 count for the game.  
 
All five High Point starters scored in double figures in the win, led by guard Duke Miles, who had a team-high 17 points, four of which came in the decisive run that ended the contest. Kimani Hamilton added 14 points and eight rebounds, while Juslin Bodo Bodo recorded a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds. As a team, the Panthers shot 48.3 percent from the field, 36.8 percent from 3-point land and 75.0 percent from the free-throw line, making 15-of-20 tosses from the stripe.
 
GAME RECAP
The Griffs came out of the gate on fire and took and early 10-2 lead just 2:54 into the contest, with Dinkins contributing five of Canisius' first 10 points. High Point answered with a 10-2 run of its own and knotted the score at 12-12 with 13:30 left in the opening half. Canisius scored the game's next seven points to take a 19-12 lead, but High Point answered that scoring surge with seven-straight points to knot the score at 19-19 with 9:45 left before intermission. From there, neither team led by more than three points, and the Panthers went into the locker room at halftime up 38-35 after they scored the final three points of the opening stanza on a traditional three-point play by Hamilton with 1:42 left before the break.
 
High Point stretched its lead to 47-40 with 16:23 left to play, but the Griffs answered with a 7-0 run of its own, capped by a thundering dunk by Mitchell with 15:00 showing on the clock, to knot the game at 47-47. High Point regained the lead on its next possession and held that lead until Canisius junior TJ Gadsden hit a 3-pointer from the right wing with 10:04 left in the game that put the Blue and Gold up 55-54. That lead, Canisius' final lead of the night, lasted just 21 seconds, as Kezza Giffa drilled a 3-ball at High Point's end of the floor to give the Panthers a 57-55 advantage.  
 
Trailing 62-57 with 6:24 left to play, Mitchell knocked down a 3-pointer and then scored on Canisius' next trip down the floor to knot the game at 62-62 with 5:53 remaining. The Panthers scored the game's next five points to take a 67-62 lead, but the Griffs would not go away, and a 3-pointer by Dinkins, one of his five makes on the night from long range, got the Blue and Gold within two at 67-65. After High Points pushed its cushion back to four points at 69-65, Uijtendaal got the Griffs within two at 69-67 with 4:00 left to play. Out of the under-4 media timeout, Canisius had two chances to tie the game, but came up empty, and Hamilton's 12-foot- jumper on the Panthers' next trip down the floor started the decisive 9-3 run which secured the win for High Point.
 
HEAD COACH REGGIE WITHERPSPOON'S POSTGAME COMMENTS
"I thought our guys competed. [High Point] is a really good team, and this was a really good atmosphere here tonight. We needed to do a better job rebounding. We did some really good things, but we ran out of gas a little bit. But that's a good team and to beat those types of teams on the road, you have take care of the little things."
 
"This stretch is a delicate balance for us. You want rest and recovery, but you need to work to get better. And then we added exams in there. It's a really delicate balance. The hope is that the rest and recovery overrides the rust. We have a little break again here, and we need to get ready for the next one."
 
"I think people think we're crazy with the non-league schedule we took on. We played some really, really good teams. The desire for us is that we took on some really good teams and we learned from it. We have a lot of guys who have a lot of minutes played that were not in these types of situations previously. They were put into situations where we could not afford any slippages, because good teams expose you. We came out on top a few times and it is my hope we are a better team because of it.   
 
GAME NOTES
• Friday marked the first meeting between the two schools, and it served as the Griffs' first game against a school from the Big South Conference since the team played Longwood at home during the 2012-13 campaign.
• Friday's loss, coupled with the team's loss at Pitt Dec. 9, marks the first time this season the Griffs dropped back-to-back games. The 11-game stretch to open the season without back-to-back losses is the longest such stretch since the 2012-13 season.
• Canisius closed out the non-league portion of its 2023-24 schedule with a 5-5 record. In this year's non-league slate, Canisius played three top-100 teams in the NET rankings (all road games) and five teams inside the NET rankings' top-150.
• Canisius has made 10-or more 3-pointers in a game six times this season.
• Dinkins' 25 points are the most for a Canisius player this season. The Chester, Pa., native matched his career-high with five makes from behind the 3-point arc.
• Uijtendaal extended his streak of scoring in double-figures to 11-straight games.
• Mitchell's seven rebounds gives him five-or more boards in a game in 11 of the Griffs' first 12 games of the season.
• Mitchell made a pair of 3-pointers in the game on his first two career 3-point attempts.
 
UP NEXT
Canisius will be off until Jan. 5 when the returns to MAAC action with a road game at Mount St. Mary's in Emmitburg, Md. Game time between the Griffs and the Mountaineers is set for 7 p.m., and the contest will be broadcast live on ESPN+. The Canisius radio call will be available for free through the Golden Griffin Broadcast Network at GoGriffs.com, with the M&T Bank Pregame Show starting at 6:40 p.m.
 
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