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CLEMSON, SC--Winthrop coach Randy Peele knew that for the Eagles to defeat Clemson they would have to hold the Tigers under 60 points and execute on the offensive end.  As it turned out on Saturday in Littlejohn Coliseum, Winthrop was unable to accomplish either of those goals as it fell 60-40.

Winthrop is now 1-9 all time in the series against Clemson and saw its two-game winning streak snapped in the process.  The Eagles are now 4-7 and will now prepare for the third of a four-game road stretch when they travel to Western Michigan for a Tuesday night game.  Clemson, on the other hand, broke a two-game losing skid and improves to 5-4.

With Andre Jones being hounded by Clemson's Tanner Smith from the opening tip, the Eagles had trouble scoring against the Tiger defense.  The Tigers held Jones to 12 points on 5 of 13 shooting and made Winthrop's leading scorer on the season work hard for every one of those points.  The Eagles also got 11 points from Reggie Middleton while Matt Morgan came off the bench to score 10, including eight in the first half.  For the game, Winthrop only connected on 32 percent from the floor (15-47) and had just five second half field goals with three of those coming from Jones.  Clemson, a team that has struggled offensively this season, connected on 50 percent from the field (21-42) and from behind the arc (7-14).  Smith and Young combined to score over half of Clemson's points as Smith led all scorers with 17 followed by Young with 15.  The duo combined to shoot 10 of 17 from the floor.

"I wrote on the board before the game that one of our defensive goals was to hold Clemson to 59 points because they really grind the game out.  I knew we couldn't win the game if they scored in the 70's, but could if it was like a 52-57 point total," said Peele.  "Defensively they (Clemson) are really, really good.  I don't know if the average fan understands how good they really are.  They are solid.  They force you to be really good offensively against their defense.  The bottom line is that they scored 60 points because of our shot selection which I thought was very poor against that defense.  Out inability to execute offensively was the biggest factor tonight."

While Smith did a sterling defensive job against Jones for most of the game, it was his offensive production that gave Clemson a big lift.  In addition to his 17 points, the 6-6 shooting guard  also dished out a game-high five assists.  With Winthrop trailing by seven at halftime (31-24), it was Smith that got Clemson out of the game quickly in the final period as he connected on two free throws and then drilled a transition 3-pointer to put Clemson up by double figures at 36-24 with just under 19 minutes left in the game forcing Peele to call a timeout, but it didn't slow. Clemson as it scored seven more unanswered points to move out to a 43-24 lead with 15:38 left in the game.  Winthrop's first second half bucket came at the 15:14 mark when Jones scored on a drive to the hoop.

"Tanner Smith layed really good defense against Andre.  He did a good job of extending his (Andre's) catches and they also did a good job of getting a body on him a lot.  They had a good game plan for him," said Peele.  Clemson head coach Brad Brownell also credited Smith's effort against Jones.  "I think Tanner's size was good in this one.  We just never allowed Jones to get into a flow.  If he made one, he didn't make another one right on top of it."

Clemson extended the lead to 21 at 53-32 with 9:32  remaining on a 3-pointer by K.J. McDaniels.  Winthrop would get no closer than 18 in the final nine minutes.