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CONWAY, SC— Winthrop held Charleston Southern to 28 percent shooting from the field, but the difference was on the boards in a 54-47 loss, Thursday afternoon in the quarterfinals of the VisitMyrtleBeach.com Big South Conference Men's Basketball Championship.

Winthrop finishes the season at 14-17 overall while Charleston Southern improves to 18-11 and advances to Saturday's semifinals. It was the first time Winthrop has lost to the Bucs in the history of the Big South Conference Tournament as Winthrop is now 6-1 all-time.

Joab Jerome led the Eagles with 15 points while redshirt senior Gideon Gamble chipped in with 10 points, six rebounds and a career-high four steals in his final game as an Eagle.

After trailing 31-22 at the half, Winthrop clamped down defensively and held the Buccaneers to just 22 percent shooting from the field, but allowed 10 offensive boards in the second half alone and Charleston Southern took full advantage with 14 second chance points. Charleston Southern finished the game with a 16-2 advantage in second chance points and dominated the glass 45-28 with 13 offensive rebounds.

During the second half the Eagles cut the deficit to a single possession game on four different occasions but couldn't get over the hump as they shot 27 percent from the floor in the second half.

With 3:12 to play the Eagles cut the lead to three after Gamble knocked down two free throws. The Eagles fouled and Sexton missed the front-end of the one-and-one but the ball bounced around and went off the Eagles for an offensive rebound for the Bucs. That led to one of the biggest baskets of the game for CSU as Mathiang Muo drilled a three from the wing with 2:35 left for a 52-46 lead. Winthrop had a couple of looks to cut the deficit, but the shots didn't fall.

The Eagles outscored the Bucs 12-5 to start the second half and cut the deficit to 36-34 at the 15:40 mark after Jerome scored in transition with a nice runner off the glass. Charleston Southern's Jeremy Sexton missed on the other end, but Winthrop couldn't coral the rebound as Reggie King was whistled for a foul. That led to a Saah Nimley three-pointer for a five-point lead with 14:58 remaining. It was Nimley's only basket of the game as he finished with seven points and was 4-for-4 from the foul line.

Christian Farmer cut the lead to one point with 11:26 remaining after he made three free throws, but the ensuing trip the Bucs snagged two offensive rebounds and was able to make it a 3-point lead again after two Malcolm Bernard free throws. That was as close as the Eagles got.

Winthrop led 7-2 early as King started off the scoring a jumper in the lane and Gamble made a three after CSU tied the game at 2-2. A dunk by Steve Johnson capped off the 7-2 start as he was wide open off a feed inside by Andre Smith.

CSU battled back to tie the game at 11-11 as Muo got hot from three and his third three of the game made it 14-11 in favor of the Bucs with 10:28 left in the half. Winthrop answered back as Larry Brown scored inside followed by a three-point play by Jerome for a 15-14 lead.  Cedrick Bowen scored on a tough turn-around jumper and then scored on a dunk for a 18-16 lead. Charleston Southern led for the rest of the way.

Muo led Charleston Southern with 15 points and 11 rebounds while Arlon Harper finished with 11 points and two steals.