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ROCK HILL, SC—The men's basketball team hosts Longwood University, Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m. It will be the first meeting in over 25 years and is also part of a doubleheader with the women's basketball team, which tips at 1 p.m.

On Wednesday, the Eagles lost their eighth straight game Big South road game after a 69-56 loss at UNC Asheville. The road hasn't just been a tough place for the Eagles to win. All 12 teams in the league have combined for a 40-19 home record in league games.

Winthrop returns home where it is 8-3 on the year and winners of four straight. The last time Winthrop won five consecutive conference home games was in was the 2009-10 season (eight straight).

The men's basketball program is closing in on a milestone at the Winthrop Coliseum. In the program's 31 years playing in the venue, the Eagles are closing in on 300 wins. Through the first thirty years, Winthrop averaged 9.7 wins per year at the Winthrop Coliseum and now post a 298-134 all-time record. The Eagles have four remaining home games to reach the 300-win mark in their home building.

Defensively the numbers are pretty equal for the Eagles at home in conference play and overall games. In five home games in the conference, Winthrop is averaging 62.2 points per game while allowing just 56.8. High Point scored 74 points against Winthrop in the league opener, but since no opponent has scored over 56 points.

The scoring has been extremely balanced as Joab Jerome has the top scoring average in conference home games at 10.0. Gideon Gamble is averaging 9.6 points, Derrick Henry 9.4 points and Andre Smith 9.0 points.

Jerome is averaging 8.5 points per game on the year, but had a career-high 18 points in his last home game. Jerome was in foul trouble against UNC Asheville and had just three points on 1-for-2 shooting from the field.

Henry reached 15 points for the third straight game and now has four straight games in double-figures as his season average is back up to 12.0 for the first time since Jan. 12.

Winthrop has had more success scoring in the paint at home with 25.1 points in the paint per game while averaging 20.4 on the road. The average was 18.9 on the road before Winthrop scored a season-high 36 points in the paint on Wednesday at Asheville.

Winthrop and Longwood have only faced each other twice with each team winning on their home court. Winthrop won the only meeting at the Winthrop Coliseum in 1986, 80-68.

The Lancers enter the game on a 14-game losing streak and are coming off a 93-60 loss at VMI on Wednesday.
Longwood is 0-12 on the road overall and 0-5 in the league. This will be the Lancers six road game in the last eight contests.

Junior guard T.T. Carey leads a balanced scoring attack at 14.5 per game and also leads the team with 53 steals. Freshman Michael Kessens is also averaging double-figures at 12.4 to go with 8.8 rebounds. Kessens is shooting 54 percent from the field and is also averaging 1.3 blocks per game. Three other players are averaging above nine points per game as Longwood is averaging 65.2 points per game on the year.

This will be a match-up of the league's second best scoring defense (Winthrop, 61.0) and the league's worst scoring defense (Longwood, 82.3). Winthrop hasn't scored over 70 points in 10 league games. Longwood has allowed 70 or more in nine of 10 league games.