Box Score Box Score
ROCK HILL, SC--Winthrop rallied in the final ten minutes of its game with PresbyterianCollege to claim a last-second 53-51 Big South Conference New Year's Eve victory.
The Eagles snapped a two-game losing streak and improve to 6-7 overall and 2-1 in conference play while PC falls to 6-8 and 1-2.
Winthrop trailed for all but the final 16 seconds of the contest and took the lead with 1.2 seconds remaining after
Reggie Middleton connected on one of two free throws to put the Eagles up 52-51 in a wild final second of action. With 59 seconds left in the game and the Eagles trailing 51-46,
Andre Jones drilled a 3-pointer to pull Winthrop to within two points and he tied it at 51-51 on a layup with 16 seconds remaining.
PC had a shot by Khalid Mutakabbir to win with two seconds left, but he missed and the Eagles came up with the rebound with 1.2 seconds left on the clock. Following a Winthrop timeout to set up a last second play, Middleton was working to get open for the inbound pass when he was fouled by Pierre Miller. He made the first free throw and intentionally missed the second. PC's A'Lonzo Coleman snagged the rebound and immediately call timeout with eight-tenths of a second remaining. The Blue Hose committed a turnover on the inbounds pass.
Charles Corbin was fouled with three-tenths of a second left and connected on one of two charity tosses for the final score.
PC led 27-15 at intermission and appeared to be in command with 9:50 left in the game leading 39-28. At that point, Coleman, who finished with 11 points and 16 rebounds, was whistled for his fourth foul and went to the bench. The Eagles responded by outscoring the Blue Hose 23-12 over the next nine minutes and 34 seconds to knot the score.
Corbin led Winthrop with his first double-double of the season as he scored 13 points and grabbed 11 rebounds.
Robbie Dreher added 11 while Jones finished with 10, including seven in the final 10 minutes. In addition to Coleman's double-double for PC, the Blue Hose got big games from Miller and
Mutakabbir who had 14 each.
One of the keys to the game was Winthrop's defense which held PC to 37 percent shooting from the floor (20-54) and 30 percent (6-20) from behind the arc. The Blue Hose entered the game shooting nearly 47 percent overall from the field and 41.6 percent from 3-point distance.
Winthrop will be back in action on Jan. 6 as it hosts UNC Asheville in a Big South Conference game. Tip time is set for 7 p.m. PC will be on the road to face Navy on Jan. 2 at 1 p.m.
