Box Score Box Score
BOILING SPRINGS, NC--For the second straight game,
Andre Jones put Winthrop's basketball team on his back, but it wasn't quite enough Saturday night as the Eagles fell 62-60 to Gardner-Webb in Big South Conference action.
Jones scored a game-high 25 points on a 10 of 14 shooting, but the remainder of the team connected on just 15 of 44 as Winthrop dropped to 1-1 in league play and 2-6 overall. Gardner-Webb is now 1-1 in the conference and improves to 4-6 overall as the Bulldogs broke a five-game losing streak against Winthrop and defeated the Eagles in Paul Porter Arena for the first time since becoming a NCAA Div. I member.
The fact that Winthrop was in the game at the end and had a chance to pull out a win was surprising based on its start. Winthrop went 3 of 18 in the opening eight minutes, but trailed just 14-7. Credit the Eagle defense in the early going for keeping the game close, but in the second half it was Winthrop's inability to stop dribble penetration and come up with loose balls that led to its demise.
"We didn't get stops at the end of the game and defensively we didn't play well enough in the second half to win," said Winthrop head coach Randy Peele. "The two things that cost us this game was our inability to get into a defensive stance and guard the dribble-drive, and our inability to get the 50-50 balls. Those were the keys to us losing a very good basketball game on the road."
Winthrop trailed 31-25 at halftime after closing to within a point at 26-25 with 2:57 left before intermission on a jump shot by Jones, who scored 10 of his 25 points in the first half. The Eagles opened the second half on a 6-1 run to get within one point at 32-31 when Jones scored on a layup. Another Jones lauyp on a backdoor cut gave Winthrop the lead at 36-34 with 15:09 left in the game. Over the next three minutes the lead changed hands three times and was tied twice.
Reggie Middleton connected on a 3-pointer to put the Eagles up 39-37, but Kevin Hartley answered with a layup to knot it at 39-39 at the 13:35 mark. Middleton gave the Eagles the lead again with a layup with 12:24 remaining, but GW responded on two free throws by Jason Dawson to make it a 41-41 game with 12:12 on the clock. The Bulldogs then went on a 8-2 run to take a 49-43 lead with 9:24 left as Dawson and Hartley connected on 3-pointers sandwiched around a jumper by
George Valentine to key the burst.
The Eagles got back-to-back buckets by
James Bourne and Middleton to cut the deficit to 49-47 with 7:40 left, but the Bulldogs countered with a layup by Max Landis and a pair of free throws by Dawson to lead 53-47 with 5:48 left, but back-to-back 3-pointers by Jones and
Gideon Gamble knotted the game for the eighth time at 53-53 at the 4:18 mark. Tyler Strange then gave GW the lead as he broke free for a layup and Landis followed on the next trip down the court with a free throw to give the Dogs a 56-53 advantage. The Eagles then outscored GW 7-3 over the next 2:28 to take a 60-59 lead when Jones nailed a 3-pointer from the straight away with 56 seconds left.
That set the stage for Tashan Newsome to come up with what proved to be the game winner when he rose up over Jones to hit a 15-footer with 30 ticks left on the clock to put the Bulldogs up 61-60. Middleton missed a jumper with 11 seconds left and Strange was fouled on the rebound. He converted one of two free throws for the final score. Winthrop had two more chances to win or tie the game, but a 3-point attempt out of the right corner by Jones was off target and knocked out of bounds by Gardner-Webb with four-tenth of a second left. Winthrop tried an alley oop pass to Valentine, but his attempt at the buzzer was short at the rim.
Winthrop will now take time off for final exams and will be back in action at home on Dec. 11 when it hosts Virginia-Wise at 4 p.m.
