Box Score
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ROCK HILL, SC— A balanced scoring attack led the Winthrop men's basketball team to a 66-52 victory over Southeastern Louisiana, Saturday afternoon in the Ramada Worldwide Bracketbusters.

The victory was a monumental for the Eagle program as it marked the 300^th victory at the Winthrop Coliseum. Winthrop is now 12-15 overall while Southeastern Louisiana falls to 10-15 on the year.

Winthrop placed five players in double-figures as junior Joab Jerome led all scorers with 14 points and redshirt senior Gideon Gamble had 13 points. Sophomore Andre Smith along with juniors Steve Johnson and Christian Farmer added 12 points. The 12 points are a career-high for Johnson, who also had a team-high seven rebounds.

“The first thing I want to say today is we got a great boost from our crowd today,” said Winthrop head coach Pat Kelsey. “A special thanks goes out to Randy and Jennifer Graham for sort of championing the back-the-pack promotion. We had so many school children from the Rock Hill community here today. I think we put on a really good show and hopefully it was the brand of basketball that will keep people coming back. They gave us an emotional lift today and I think it was really, really big. I wanted to give a special thanks to them and all the people that helped with the promotion. I was proud of our guys coming off a couple of tough losses.”

With the Eagles clinging to a one-point lead at 38-37 with 15:19 to play after two Onochie Ochie free throws, Winthrop worked its way to a double-figure lead over the six minutes mainly at the foul line. A Smith three-pointer put the Eagles in front 42-37 and then six of the Eagles next nine points came at the free throw line. Mixed in there was a Farmer three after the Lions cut the lead to five points with 11:33 to play after Antonnio Benton made two free throws. The lead extended to 14 points as the Eagles outscored the Lions 17-5 from the 15:19 mark until it led 56-42 with 7:55 to play.

Defensively the Eagles seemed to get stronger and stronger as the game went on which played a big role in the double-figure victory. After the Lions shot 42 percent from the floor in the first half, the Eagles held them to just 29 percent in the second half (37 percent for the game). Winthrop also forced 17 turnovers and won the battle of the boards 32-26.

In addition to the overall defensive field goal percentage, Winthrop held the Lion's leading scorer Brandon Fortenberry to four points and the team's second leading scorer Roosevelt Johnson to six points. The two of them were averaging a combined 26.2 points per game coming into the game.

Winthrop 5-3 in the early going behind a couple of baskets from Gamble. The game remained close until the 14:41 mark when the Lions went on an 8-0 run to lead 18-9 with 12:28 to play in the first half. The run started with a Onochie Ochie jumper off a Winthrop turnover and the next six points came at the foul line to complete the run.

Johnson got the Eagles back in the game as he sparked a 6-0 run with a three-point play as he was fouled while knocking down a baseline jumper. Then Southeastern Louisiana reeled off six straight points to lead 24-17 with 8:18 left in the first half.

The Eagles made it a two-point game with just over five minutes left in the half after a Smith triple, but Fortenberry answered back with a three-pointer for a 27-22 advantage with 4:23 left. From that point, Winthrop outscored Southeastern Louisiana 11-5 to end the half for a 33-32 lead at the break. The run was capped off by a big block from Johnson that turned into a quick three-pointer on the other end by Farmer with 20 seconds left.

Dre Evans led the Lions with 11 points and was the only player in double-figures while Ochie finished with nine points and three blocks.

Winthrop finished the game shooting 42 percent and was rewarded for its aggressive play offensively as it shot a season-high 33 free throws and finished the game 23-for-33.

Winthrop gets back to Big South Conference action on Wednesday, Feb. 27 when it heads to Conway, SC to take on Coastal Carolina at 7 p.m.