Box Score Box Score

ROCK HILL, SC--Matt Morgan and George Valentine scored career highs and Reggie Middleton topped his career best for assists to lead Winthrop to a 91-84 Big South Conference victory over VMI on Saturday afternoon.

Morgan finished with 20 points while Valentine had 16 and Middleton dished out 12 assists for the Eagles who won for the second straight game and improved their record to 6-10 overall and 3-2 in conference play.  VMI saw its record fall to 7-9 overall and 2-4 in the Big South.

The Eagles were led in scoring by Andre Jones who had a game-high 27 to improve on his season average of 18.5.  Keith Gabriel led the Keydets with 26 points.  fIn addition to his career-high 12 assists, Middleton scored 18 points to earn his first double-double in points and assists.

For the second straight game, Winthrop shot better than 50 percent from the field as it connected on 35 of 63 shots for 55.6 percent.  VMI, who came into the game as the nation's third highest scoring team, nearly got its average of 85.9 thanks to a second half shooting performance that saw the Keydets connect on 14 of 22 field goals.  They finished the game at 49 percent (26-53).

Winthrop led 8-5 just five minutes into the game, but fell behind 13-10 when Gabriel connected on a 3-pointer at the 13:07 mark.  VMI controlled the lead for the remainder of the half and led by as many as nine points at 32-23 with 5:56 left in the period following a pair of free throws by Ron Burks.  Winthrop then outscored VMI 13-5 the remainder of the half as Jones had nine points during the stretch and trailed 37-36 at intermission

The Eagles took a 41-40 lead with 18:40 left in the game when Morgan completed a three-point play and Winthrop never trailed again.  Middleton's 3-pointer with 15:46 remaining put Winthrop up by seven at 52-45.  A layup by Jones at the 8:29 mark gave Winthrop its first double digit lead at 65-55.  Winthrop would lead by 10 on five other occasions with the last ten-point advantage coming at 79-69 with 3:09 left to play after Morgan threw down a dunk off or Middleton's 12th assist.

Winthrop will now go on the road for its next two conference games as they face High Point on Jan. 12 and Liberty on Jan. 14.  The next home game will come on Jan. 17 when the Eagles host Campbell.