Box Score

www.winthropphotos.com

ROCK HILL, SC— Andre Smith scored nine of his game-high 14 points in the second half to help Winthrop to a 61-55 victory over Gardner-Webb, Wednesday evening at the Winthrop Coliseum.

Winthrop improves to 8-10 overall on the year and 2-4 in the Big South while Gardner-Webb's record evens up at 10-10 overall and 2-4 in the league. The Runnin' Bulldogs suffered their 11^th straight road loss in league games.

“I'm proud of our guys and I'm proud of our staff,” said Winthrop head coach Pat Kelsey. “This has been a trying couple of days for my family. I had a death in the family. My grandmother passed away so I was at practice on Monday and missed yesterday's practice and got back early today for the shoot around. That's why you hire a high level staff. I have to credit our players and our staff for really locking in amid adversity. It was a great team win and we got a lot of contributions from a lot of guys.”

After building a nine-point lead early in the second half, Gardner-Webb responded with a 15-2 run as it hit its first six shots and led 41-37 with 14:44 to play after Donta Harper knocked down two free throws. Max Landis hit two threes during the run that gave Gardner-Webb its first lead since the first four minutes of the game.

The Eagles withstood the punches and hit back as they went on a 12-2 run to go up 49-43 with 10:53 remaining as Smith scored the final five points of the run. Gardner-Webb pulled within one point at 44-43 with 11:37 to play and Smith answered with a three-pointer. Harper looked to score on the other end and the shot was blocked by Gamble and almost immediately the Gardner-Webb bench was whistled for a technical after Larry Brown came down with the rebound. Smith knocked down and free throws and that pushed the lead to six points with 10:53 left.

Both teams combined for just five points over the next four minutes until James Bourne worked his way into the paint and dropped in a baby hook for a seven point lead with just under six to play. Harper cut the lead to four points on a three-point play, but Gideon Gamble answered back as he got a runner to fall and drew the foul as he knocked down the foul shot to complete the three-point play and give Winthrop another seven-point lead.

Gardner-Webb started the second half on fire, going 7-for-9 but finished the rest of the half 4-for-16 as it was also 6-for-11 behind the arc in the second half.

“When we went down four, Chris Farmer and Gideon Gamble both hit really big shots and answered the run,” said Kelsey. “They were shooting 46 percent from the field in the first half and then went up to 57 percent in the second half and we called a timeout and really got after our guys. I think it got back to us bowing our neck and defending.”

With 1:13 to play, Tyler Strange drilled a three, but the Eagles went 5-for-6 from the foul line from that point to hold off the Runnin' Bulldogs.

Both teams got off to a sluggish start as each team defended hard, but offensively the teams were turning the ball over and not converting as the score was tied at 7-7 until a four-point play by Farmer at the 11:24 mark. Farmer pulled up from deep behind the three-point line and drained a three as he was fouled by the Strange. Farmer completed the three-point play for the 11-7 advantage.

At that point the offenses woke up a bit and the Eagles pushed their lead to six points after a long straight away jumper from Smith. Gardner-Webb worked back to within one possession after Strange drained a fade away 12-footer with 9:52 to play in the half. After the two teams traded baskets, Winthrop used a 5-0 run to go up by eight points with 6:18 on the clock. The lead extended to 10 points at 26-16 with 3:29 left in the half after Farmer connected on another three.

Gardner-Webb cut the lead to five points with just over a minute and a half left but back-to-back buckets in the lane by Steve Johnson made it a nine-point advantage heading into the final possession of the half. Gardner-Webb ran a play to free Isaiah Ivey in the corner and he drained the triple with two seconds on the clock as Winthrop went into the break with a 30-24 lead.

Smith led all scorers with his 14 points as he was 4-for-6 from the field and had three steals. The 14 points were the most Smith has scored in a Big South Conference game. Farmer finished with his best offensive game in league play as he chipped in with 13 points off the bench while Bourne tied his career-best of 11 points and hauled in six boards. Bourne also dished out a career-high three assists.

Kevin Hartley led Gardner-Webb with 13 points and five rebounds while Tashan Newsome had 11 points off the bench to go along with four assists.

For the game, Winthrop finished shooting 44 percent from the floor and 35 percent behind the arc while Gardner-Webb shot 45 percent from the floor and 44 percent from three. Winthrop was 15-for-20 at the foul line compared to 5-for-9 for the Runnin' Bulldogs.

Winthrop will the hit road for its next contest as it heads north to Radford, VA to take on Radford University Saturday, Jan. 26 at 4 p.m. Gardner-Webb will also head north as it heads to Lexington, VA to take on Virginia Military Institute on Saturday at 1 p.m. in the second of a three-game road swing.