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ROCK HILL, SC--Whatever Winthrop head coach Randy Peele said to his team at halftime apparently lit a fire under the Eagles as they stormed back from a one-point halftime deficit to defeat Virginia-Wise 79-70 in a non-conference game on Sunday at the Winthrop Coliseum.

"I knew this was going to be a tough game," said Peele following the game. The Winthrop coach said to be up by 15 in the second half against a tough team "is a quality win against a team with Division I players that doesn't have a Division I title. Virginia-Wise was a difficult team to play against, but I'm always talking about getting it done, and tonight we got it done."

Four Winthrop players scored in double figures with senior guard Andre Jones leading the team with 19, including 15 in the second half.  Gideon Gamble had 17 with all coming in the first half on a perfect six of six shooting performance.  George Valentine and Reggie Middleton had 10 each for the Eagles who improve to 3-6 while UVA-Wise drops to 3-9 as they concluded a three-game swing through South Carolina this past week.  Winthrop has now won 28 straight non-Division I home games dating back to the 1998-99 season.

UVA-Wise placed three players in double figures led by the game's leading scorer Josh Jordan with 23 as he connected on 11 of 14 field goals.  Travis Berry finished with 21 and was 6 of 11 from three-point land while Darius Smith added 11.  All three of those players played the entire 40 minutes for the Highland Cavaliers.

After trailing a hot-shooting Highland Cavaliers team at halftime, Winthrop came out in the second half and established its inside game over a smaller Wise team with back-to-back baskets by Valentine.  His second bucket in the paint gave Winthrop a 44-43 lead with 18:03 left in the game and the Eagles never trailed again.  Middleton gave Winthrop its first double digit lead at 53-43 on a layup with 14:23 remaining to play.  UVA-Wise cut the deficit to four at 56-52 with 11:31 left on a 3-pointer by James Turner.  Freshman James Bourne then scored six straight points and Jones finished off the 8-0 run with a layup to put Winthrop up 64-52 with 7:35 left.

Winthrop claimed its largest lead of the game of 15 when Jones'  layup put the Eagles ahead 77-62 with just under two minutes remaining.

At halftime, the outcome was very much in doubt as UV-Wise put up 40 points on 16 of 35 shooting, including 5 of 12 from behind the 3-point arc.  The Highland Cavaliers, a team that dressed only nine players and had no player taller than 6-6, surprisingly outrebounded the Eagles 20-19 in the first half.  Winthrop got on the boards in the second half and won the battle of the glass 35-28 with Valentine leading the way with six rebounds to tie Wise's Jermaine Wright for game-high honors.

For the game Wise finished with a very respectable 47 percent on 26 of 55 overall and 8 of 17 from three-point land, but Winthrop was just a little better going 30 of 61 (49 percent) and converting on 16-22 free throws (72.7 percent), a major improvement from the 59 percent team average going into the game.

The game came during the middle of final fall semester exams for the players and Peele said that may have played a part in the way his team came out in the first half.  "It's a mental drain on our players of having to prepare for exams and also the mental part of coming to practice to prepare.  That is one of the reasons that we try to play a home game during final exams.

The Eagles will now go on the road for four games between the completion of final exams and their next home game against UNC Asheville on New Year's Eve.  Winthrop will face Jacksonville on Dec. 15, Clemson on Dec. 17, Western Michigan on Dec. 20 and Georgia on Dec. 27.