Box Score

N. CHARLESTON, SC--Jamarco Warren scored 27 points, including 13 at the free throw line, to lead Charleston Southern past Winthrop 69-60 in a Big South Conference battle in the CSU Fieldhouse on Saturday afternoon.

The loss was the second straight in conference play for the Eagles and drops their record to 7-10 overall and 3-4 in the league while CSU improves to 11-8 and 5-2.

Winthrop dug itself in a deep hole early as it connected on just 3 of its first 14 field goals and trailed 15-6  just over nine minutes into the game.  Behind the outside shooting of Warren, who scored 16 of his points in the first half, the Buccaneers went up 28-12 with 6:14 remaining in the first half.  

After trailing 35-26 at intermission, Winthrop turned up the defensive heat early in the second half and held CSU to no field goals for nearly seven minutes left in the game.  But Winthrop had trouble cutting into the lead as the Bucs connected on seven points at the free throw line and led 41-34 at the `14:20 mark.  CSU led by as many as 13 with 5:23 left to play after Jeremy Sexton connected on a 3-pointer to give the Bucs a 58-45 lead.

Winthrop outscored CSU 11-2 over the next 3:23 and cut the deficit to four points at 60-56 on a 3-pointer by Dreher.  It was Winthrop's first made trey of the game.  Followiing a layup by Kenny Mitchell just before the shot clock expired, Andre Jones drilled a 3-pointer from the left corner to draw Winthrop to within three points at 62-59 with 1:17 left on the clock.  Warren prevented a Winthrop comeback by converting six out of six free throws in the final 49 seconds.

The free throw line and the 3-point line proved big for CSU as the Bucs connected on 25 of 29 from the charity stripe and hit 8 of 17 from beyond the arc.  Winthrop actually finished the game with six more field goals (24-18), but made just two out of 13 three-pointers and was 10 of 18 from the free throw line.

Charles Corbin, who got a starting nod in place of Matt Morgan, responded with his second double-double of the season with 11 points and 11 rebounds.  Reggie Middleton was the leading scorer for the Eagles with 13 points in 23 minutes of action before fouling out late in the game.  In addition to Warren's 27 point performance, CSU got a big game out of Kelvin Martin who had a double-double with 11 points and a game-high 13 rebounds.  Sexton finished with 12 for the Buccaneers.

Winthrop will return home next Thursday night, Jan. 20 to host Radford at 7 p.m.