ST. THOMAS, USVI—For nearly 25 minutes the Winthrop men’s basketball team had visions of an upset in its mind against Arkansas in the opening round of the 2004 Paradise Jam, but the Razorbacks torrid outside shooting kept that from becoming a reality as they broke open a close game and coasted to a 72-49 win Friday night.
Winthrop (0-1) let the Razorbacks know early on that this would be a battle as the Eagles jumped out to a 17-10 lead in opening 7:13 of the game behind the shooting of sophomore guard Torrell Martin who scored eight of those 17 points during that stretch. Winthrop would not lead again in the game as Arkansas scored nine unanswered points to take a one point lead with 5:26 remaining in the half and went to intermission clinging to a 33-30 lead.
It took a near record-setting 3-point shooting performance by the Razorbacks and a cold second half performance by Winthrop to help Arkansas avoid any upset bid the Eagles may have had. Behind a 4 for 5 shooting performance from beyond the arc by Eric Ferguson, Arkansas connected on 64.7 percent from the land of three, which is second best in Razorback history. Olu Famutimi was 3 of 4 from three-point distance and led all scorers in the game with 17 while Ferguson finished with 16. With the help of its outside attack, Arkansas finished the game shooting 53 percent (24-45) while Winthrop went from bad to worse and wound up at 28 percent (15-54).
Winthrop was led in scoring by Craig Bradshaw who scored a career-high 12 points. Martin was the only other Eagle in double figures with 11.
After tying the game at 40-40 on a free throw by Martin with 16:38 left in the game, Winthrop missed its next 11 shots and committed five turnovers as Arkansas spurted out to a comfortable 58-41 lead.
“For 25 minutes we looked great,” said Winthrop head coach Gregg Marshall, “but for the last 15 minutes we looked undisciplined and uncoached. We need to build on that 25 minutes and make it 26, then 27 and 31 minutes and hope we can get to 40 minutes of quality basketball if we can.”
“Arkansas is a big physical ball club and I think that wore us down over the last 15 minutes,” said Marshall. “I hope that’s all it was because I know we showed good signs about being a quality basketball team, but then the last 15 minutes was a nightmare that I’ve been having with the youth and inexperience that we’ve been putting out on the floor.”
Winthrop will face Troy at 9 p.m. EST on Saturday and will play a final game on Monday as the championship, consolation and fifth place games of the Paradise Jam are held.
