Box Score Box Score

ATHENS, GA--Andre Jones scored a career-high 33 points and freshman Derrick Henry scored 17 in his first career start, but those performances weren't quite enough as Winthrop fell to the Georgia Bulldogs  92-86 in an overtime shootout at Stegeman Coliseum Tuesday night.

Winthrop drops to 4-9 overall as the Eagles lost for the third straight game on the road while Georgia won its fifth straight game and improves to 8-5.  The Bulldogs now lead the all-time series with Winthrop 4-1, but the victory did not come easy for the home team as it fought back from a five-point deficit with 21 seconds left in regulation and tied the game at 76-76 on a full court drive for a layup by Gerald Robinson with 2.4 seconds on the clock. 

In addition to the performances from Jones and Henry, George Valentine scored 12 points and grabbed a game-high nine rebounds.  Georgia placed four players in double figures as Robinson led his team with 22 points followed by Dustin Ware with 20, Kenneth Caldwell-Pope,18, and Nemanja Djurisic with 17.

Despite he loss, Winthrop head coach Randy Peele was proud of the effort his team made and particularly of the performance by Jones on the homecourt of an SEC team.  "This was certainly the best game of Andre's career.  That's right up there with the top performances ever for a Winthrop basketball player.  It's amazing, honestly, the shots that he makes with such a small margin of when the shot is open."

Winthrop came out of the starting gate fast as it took a quick 7-0 lead in the opening one minute and 36 seconds of the game.  Jones scored five of those points to hit the 1,000-point mark of his career to become the 19th player in Winthrop men's basketball history to join that elite club.  He finished the night connecting on 10 of 15 field goals, including 4 of 6 from behind the 3-point arc, and was a perfect 9 of 9 from the free throw line to break his previous personal best of 29 points set on Nov. 18 against Marquette.

Jones gave a lot of the credit for his performance to the one enjoyed by Henry, who was getting to start in his home state.  "We have a freshman who started tonight and got 17 points," said Jones.  "That took a ton of pressure off of us and that opens up everyone."

The Eagles still led by seven at 13-6 with 15:04 left in the first half when Georgia began to cut into the deficit and eventually claim a brief lead at 21-19 at the 9:21 mark when Vincent Williams scored on a layup.  Joab Jerome quickly tied the game at  21-21 with 8:44 to play in the first half.  The remainder of the first half saw six lead changes and two more ties before Georgia closed out the period on a 7-0 run over the final 1:54 to go into halftime with a 34-30 lead. 

The Bulldogs looks like they were going to break the game open when they came out in the second half to outscore Winthrop 14-3 in the opening 5:33 to a 13-point lead, their largest of the game at 48-35.  At that point in the contest, Winthrop roared back with an outside shooting barrage that led the Eagles on a 13-0 run that tied the game at 48-48 with 10:37 remaining in regulation.  Henry started the run with back-to-back 3-pointers followed by a layup.  Andre Smith drilled a 3-pointer to make the score 48-46 and then Larry Brown knotted the score at 48-48 on a nice jump hook in the lane.  After UGA's Williams and Winthrop's Jones traded buckets the score was tied at 50-50 when Georgia went on a 9-1 run over the next two minutes and 19 seconds to move out to a 59-51 lead. 

Winthrop refused to fold again and this time went on a 13-3 run to take a 64-62 lead when Jones connected on a deep 3-pointer with 2:33 on the clock.  The Eagles eventually led by five points at 74-69 with 21 seconds left following two free throws by Matt Morgan.  Williams countered by scoring on a drive to the basket with 17 seconds on the clock, but missed a free throw to keep Winthrop up by three.  Morgan was then fouled on the inbounds pass and made one of two free throws to give Winthrop a 75-71 lead with 15 seconds left.  Ware came back to hit a 3-pointer with 11 seconds left, trimming the Winthrop lead to one at 75-74.  Henry was fouled with six ticks left on the clock, but he missed the first free throw before knocking down the second one leaving with the Eagles with a 76-74 lead, but Robinson took the ensuing inbounds pass and drove the full length of the floor to score the tying layup with just under three seconds showing.  The Eagles called their final timeout to set up the winning shot, but a desperation heave from beyond mid-court came up short.

Georgia took the tip in overtime and quickly took a 79-76 lead on a 3-pointer by Dustin Ware.  The Bulldogs went up by five with 4:22 left in the extra period following two free throws by Kenneth Caldwell-Pope and Winthrop never got closer than three points for the remainder of the contest after a jump shot by Jones pulled the Eagles to within 81-78.

"They just wore us down," said Peele.  "At the end of the first half we got worn down.  We missed three inside baskets at the end of the first half and Reggie (Middleton) had a tough game because he was trying to take the ball against 7-footers and getting his shot blocked.  We had five empty possessions at the end of the first half, but I can't fault the effort that our guys gave tonight."

Winthrop connected on 44 percent for the game (28-64) and was 8 of 19 from 3-point land. The Eagles also had one of their best free throw shooting performances of the season as they finished at 78 percent on 22 of 28 from the charity stripe.  As has been the case in several games this season, the Eagles brought out the best in their opponents' shooting as Georgia connected on a season-best 54 percent from the floor (31-57) and went 8 of 21 from long distance.  The Bulldogs came into the game shooting only 39 percent as a team.

Winthrop will now turn its attention to Big South Conference play as it returns home on Saturday to face preseason league-favorite and defending conference champion UNC Asheville.  Game time is set for 4 p.m.