Box Score Box Score
ROCK HILL, SC--
Matt Morgan scored a career-high 22 points and
Reggie Middleton finished with 16, but those two performances weren't enough to offset Appalachian State's balanced scoring attack as the Eagles fell 76-64 to the Mountaineers in the 2012 Sears BracketBusters on Saturday afternoon at the Holmes Center.
Winthrop remains winless in Boone in four tries and falls to 11-18 on the season while ASU improves to 12-15. The Eagles and Mountaineers are now 1-1 when they face each other in the BracketBuster and Winthrop is 3-4 in seven appearances in the series. Appalachian State now leads the overall series 5-1.
The Eagles led only twice in the game at 2-0 to open things when Morgan nailed a 15-foot baseline jumper in the first 27 seconds and again at 58-57 in the second half with 7:47 left to play when
Andre Jones drove the lane for his first basket of the day. Winthrop's leading scorer on the year, Jones finished with four points for the second straight game and connected on 2 of 11 field goals. He is now 4 for 23 in the last two games. After Jones put Winthrop ahead, ASU head coach Jason Capel whistled for a quick time out and his team responded as Mike Neal connected on a three to spark a 19-6 run over the final 7:19.
ASU was led by mammoth center Isaac Butts and former Charleston Southern player Omar Carter with 15 points each. Tab Hamilton and Nathan Healy had 13 apiece while Neal finished with 10 and scored eight of his team's final 19 points.
Morgan scored 11 points in each half and finished the game with a 10 for 14 shooting performance. As a team Winthrop connected on 28 of 62 (45.2 pct.) compared to 26 of 55 for the Mountaineers (47.3 pct.). The bid difference came from the free throw line and from behind the arc. ASU connected on 17 of 25 free throws and 7 of 17 from the three. Winthrop was just 4 of 10 from the charity stripe and 4 of 16 from long distance. Middleton accounted for three of the four Winthrop 3-pointers.
The Eagles got beat on the boards as well 37-33. Butts, who stands 6-10 and weighs in at 290 pounds, led all rebounders with 15.
George Valentine led Winthrop with 8.
Winthrop will now take a week off before playing at UNC Asheville next Saturday in the final regular season game. The Eagles need a win in that game to assure themselves of a first-round bye into the Big South Conference Championship tournament.
