Box Score Box Score

ROCK HILL, SC--Eastern Kentucky spoiled Winthrop's Homecoming Day with a 71-59 victory on Saturday as the Colonels connected on 12 three-pointers and forced the Eagles into 36 percent shooting for the game.

Winthrop is now 26-8 in home openers while EKU evens the series between the two schools at 2-2 and improves to 1-1 on the season.  

Winthrop placed three players in double figures, led by Matt Morgan with 14 points and a game-high 8 rebounds.  EKU bettered that, however, as it had four players scored in double digits with junior point guard Mike DiNunno leading all scorers with 20 points.

"This is the best team we have played in a home opener during in nine years here," said Winthrop head coach Randy Peele.  "Eastern does a great job of spreading you out and the way they do it is very complex."

Peele acknowledged that EKU is a hard matchup.  "We struggled to guard DiNunno, but what beat us was our inability to defend their screen action, and the fact that we didn't shoot the ball very well."

The way Winthrop opened the game, it looked like the Eagles might run away with game as they jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead and forced EKU head coach Jeff Neubauer to call a quick time with just three minutes, 21 seconds having elapsed.  Andre Jones connected on a jumper just inside the arc and Reggie Middleton swished a 3-pointer followed by a tip-in by Matt Morgan to give Winthrop the early lead.

Winthrop led by as many as nine at 20-11 with 11:38 remaining in the first half after freshman Andre Smith connected on a long three-pointer, but EKU outscored the Eagles 11-2 over the next five minutes to tie the score at 22-22 with just under seven minutes left.  

DiNunno gave Eastern its first lead at 29-28 with a drive to the basket, but George Valentine scored on Winthrop's next possesion to retake the lead briefly at 30-29.  Jeff Johnson, a burly 6-7 outside shooter, then drilled a 3-pointer from deep to give EKU a 32-30 lead and the Colonels never trailed again.

EKU took a 34-30 lead to intermission and then came out in the second half to quickly extend the lead to nine at 41-32 as DiNunno nailed another trey.  Johnson put the Colonels up by 12 at 44-32 on another 3-pointer with 13:51 remaining and Winthrop could not make a serious run for the remainder of the contest.  The closeset the Eagles were able to come was seven points on four occasions in the final seven minutes.

EKU was able to extend its zone more after taking the lead and forced Winthrop into 4 of 19 shooting from behind the arc for a 21 percent average.  The Eagles shot 36 percent overall (21-58).  The Colonels wound up shooting 48 percent overall from the floor (24-50) and were 12 of 30 from long distance (40 percent).

One bright spot for Winthrop was in the rebounding department where Matt Morgan and George Valentine combined to pull down 15 rebounds to help give the Eagles a commanding 41-28 edge on the boards. 

Joining Morgan in double figures was Jones with 13 points while Valentine finished with 10.  EKU got 13 points from Johnson and DiMitri Riggs and 10 from Joshua Jones.  EKU's bench outscored Wnthrop's bench 29-10.

Winthrop will travel to Virginia for a Tuesday night game on Fox Sports South that tips off at 7 p.m.  The Eagles will then head to St. Thomas, USVI for the 2011 Paradise Jam where they will meet 21st ranked Marquette on Friday night.