Box Score Box Score
ROCK HILL, SC--Winthrop dropped its final regular season game at UNC Asheville on Saturday, 67-55, but despite the loss the Eagles earned a bye into the quarter-finals of next week's Advance Auto Parts Big South Conference Championship Tournament and a return trip to Kimmel Arena in Asheville.
Winthrop closes out the regular season with a 11-19 overall record and a 8-10 conference mark. Asheville, which swept the season season series, improves to 21-9 on the season and finishes conference play at 16-2. The Eagles receive the No. 6 seed and will face Campbell, the No. 3 seed, at 2 p.m. in the quarter-finals on Wednesday afternoon.
The Eagles held the Bulldogs, the 2012 regular season conference champions, to 15 points under their season scoring average, but it was at the free throw line where Winthrop let the game get away. Winthrop connected on just 14 of 26 free throws in the game and went just 10 for 22 in the second half. The Eagle defense held Asheville to only six second half field goals, but the Bulldogs went 18 of 24 from the charity stripe in the final period and finished the day connecting on 20 of 26.
The Bulldogs used some hot shooting from beyond the arc to build a 35-26 halftime lead. Asheville was 14-of-21 from the field and 5-of-10 from long distance. Jeremy Atkinson knocked down two treys and three other Bulldogs sank three-pointers. The second half was a different story for Asheville, however, as it connected on just 6 of 22 field goals for 27 percent and finished the game shooting 46.5 percent (20-43). Winthrop finished the day at 39 percent on 19 of 48 shooting.
Winthrop got balanced scoring for the game as four players were in double figures led by Reggie Middleton with 12. Matt Morgan had his eighth straight double figure game with 10 before having to leave the game with an eye injury with 15 minutes and 16 seconds left to play. He was unable to return to action. Gideon Gamble came off the bench to score 10 while George Valentine finished with 10 and led the Eagles with 7 rebounds.
UNC Asheville was led by seniors J.P. Primm and Matt Dickey who combined for 29 points on Senior Day. Primm had a game-high 17 while Dickey finished with a dozen as did Jeremy Atkinson, who came off the bench to have a perfect shooting day on 2 of 2 from behind the 3-point arc and 6 of 6 from the free throw line.
Winthrop got out to an early 10-4 lead in the oepning 4:39 of the game, but got outscored 12-3 over the next five minutes to take a 16-13 lead on a 3-pointer by Primm with 10:49 left in the first half. The game was tied at 18-18 when Gamble connected on his second trey of the game with 9:16 showing on the clock, but back-to-back triples by Atkinson gave the Bulldogs a 24-18 lead. Joab Jerome answered with a basket for Winthrop followed by a tip-in by Morgan to draw the Eagles to within a bucket at 24-22 with 6:02 left in the half, but that would be as close as Winthrop could get for the rest of the contest.
Asheville closed out the half on a 11-4 run to take a 35-26 lead at intermission.
The second half turned into a free throw shooting contest for the most part. Asheville built a 13 point lead at 40-27 in the first three minutes of the second half after Atkinson converted two free throws. Winthrop got the deficit back to single digits on a layup by Middleton that made the score 46-38 with 10:44 remaining, but Asheville quickly got the lead to 15 at 55-40 on a pair of free throws by Dickey with 7 minutes, 30 seconds left to play and the Bulldogs cruised the rest of the way for the
win.
Tickets for next week's Big South Tournament are available to purchase on the UNC Asheville web site (UNCABulldogs.com). Tickets are priced at $15 for sideline, $10 for baseline, and $5 for students.
2012 Advance Auto Parts Big South Conference Men's Basketball Championship
Monday, Feb. 27 - First Round (at higher seeds)
GAME 1: No. 10 Radford at No. 7 VMI, 7:00pm
GAME 2: No. 9 Gardner-Webb at No. 8 High Point, 7:30pm
Wednesday, Feb. 29 - Quarterfinals (at No. 1 seed - UNC Asheville)
GAME 3: Winner Game 1 vs. No. 2 Coastal Carolina, 12:00pm
GAME 4: No. 3 Campbell vs. No. 6 Winthrop, 2:00pm
GAME 5: Winner Game 2 vs. No. 1 UNC Asheville, 6:00pm
GAME 6: No. 4 Charleston Southern vs. No. 5 seed, 8:00pm
Thursday, March 1 - Semifinals (at No. 1 seed - UNC Asheville)
GAME 7: Winner Game 3 vs. Winner Game 4, 6:00pm (TV: ESPNU)
GAME 8: Winner Game 5 vs. Winner Game 6, 8:00pm (TV: ESPNU)
Saturday, March 3 - Championship (at highest remaining seed)
GAME 9: Winner Game 7 vs. Winner Game 8, 12:00pm (TV: ESPN2)
