Box Score
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LEXINGTON, VA— For the second straight game, the Winthrop men's basketball team ran into a hot shooting second half team as Virginia Military Institute shot 67 percent in the second half as the Eagles fell 72-54, Saturday afternoon at Cameron Hall.
With the loss, Winthrop falls to 6-9 on the year and 0-3 in the Big South while VMI remains perfect in league play at 3-0 and is now 8-7 overall.
Winthrop held the Keydets to 36 percent from the floor and to just 3-for-14 to start the game, but finished the remainder of the game 23-for-40 from the field, including 14-for-21 in the second (5-for-6 behind the arc). VMI also managed 11 points off six second half turnovers and ended up with 28 total points off of 17 Winthrop turnovers.
“It's what they do,” said Winthrop head coach
Pat Kelsey referring to the quick shots and full court pressure VMI likes to apply. “Obviously they want to apply pressure from the moment the ball goes into the net. I wouldn't say the majority of our turnovers came in the back court against their pressure. Most of it came in the half court. A lot of our turnovers in the first half came on 3-on-2, 2-on-1 situations where we made ill-advised decisions and ran over a couple of guys for charges.”
The game opened up in favor of VMI in the first six and a half minutes of the second half as the Eagles were outscored 15-6 as a Rodney Glasgow three-pointer made it 50-38 at the 13:24 mark. The lead remained around 12-14 points over the next five minutes before
Joab Jerome made it a 10-point game and had a chance to cut the lead to single digits but missed the free throw to complete the three-point play with 8:31 to play. VMI went down on the ensuing possession and drilled a three-pointer as Dorian Albritton drained one of his four threes in the game.
Gideon Gamble ended up as the only Eagle in double-figures as he scored a season-high 16 points and also pulled down four rebounds. It's the third straight game in double-figures for Gamble and fifth time in the last six games.
Andre Smith added nine points while
Larry Brown and
Joab Jerome each had eight points. Brown also tied his career-best of nine rebounds.
The Eagles trailed by as many as 10 points in the first half, but battled their way back before the half and trailed 35-32 at the break. Winthrop shot the ball well in the first 20 minutes at 46 percent but 11 turnovers helped the Keydets to the lead at the break. The 11 turnovers by the Eagles led to 17 points for the Keydets in the first half alone. VMI only shot 36 percent from the floor in the first half.
Early in the game Winthrop led 8-3 thanks to a couple of Gamble jumpers. Gamble and Jerome made it 4-0 and after a three-pointer by VMI's Glasgow, another jumper by Gamble and a lay-up by Brown on a length-of-the-court pass from Jerome made it 8-3.
Senior
Shola Diop's stick back with 11:34 remaining in the opening half made it an 18-16 advantage to VMI, which responded with an 8-0 run for its largest lead of the first half at 26-16 after Albritton's three-pointer. Winthrop answered with a 7-0 run behind a couple of baskets from Jerome to cut the lead down to 26-23 with just over seven minutes remaining. Winthrop defended well the rest of the way to keep it a one possession game at the half.
Stan Okoye, the 2012-13 Big South Conference Preseason Player of the Year, finished the game with 25 points and 13 rebounds in 39 minutes of action. He led three players in double-figures as Albritton finished with 14 and D.J. Covington chipped in with 12 points, six rebounds and four blocks.
Winthrop finished the game shooting 41 percent (36 percent in the second half) and attempted a season-low five free throws (3-for-5).
Winthrop will be back in action on Wednesday, Jan. 16 at home when it hosts Presbyterian College at 7 p.m.
