ROCK HILL, SC—The Winthrop men's basketball team looks to open up Big South Conference action 2-0 when it hosts North Division favorite Charleston Southern, Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. at the Winthrop Coliseum.
Winthrop is coming off a 71-67 victory at Presbyterian College on Wednesday in its league opener and is now 7-6 on the year. Charleston Southern also won its league opener on Wednesday with a 70-58 victory over Coastal Carolina and enters today's game at 7-7.
The victory over the Blue Hose ended a four-game losing streak for the Eagles and also ended a 12-game road losing streak in league games. If Winthrop can capture a win over Charleston Southern it would be 2-0 in the league for the first time since the 2006-07 season.
Redshirt
Keon Moore led the Eagles with 16 points in the win over PC as he led three players in double-figures. Moore made a three with 3:10 to play in the game for a 10-point lead and then hit two free throws with five seconds for a six-point lead to help the Eagles seal the win. Moore is now averaging 11.8 points since being inserted into the starting lineup five games ago and also leads the team in free throws made/attempted over that span (17-for-20).
The team's leading scorer freshman
Keon Johnson had five points for the second straight contest but still averages a team-best 13.3 points per game and has been scoring 15 points per game at home. Johnson has been very good behind the arc in the six games at the Winthrop Coliseum, shooting 57 percent (16-for-28).
Senior
Joab Jerome, who had failed to reach double-figures in three straight games, chipped in with 10 points in the win over PC. Jerome scored on a pull-up jumper with 1:29 to play for another 10-point Winthrop advantage. He also dished out five assists and didn't record a turnover. During the team's four-game losing streak he had six assists and 11 turnovers. He is second on the team with 11.5 points per game and is shooting 49 percent from the field. In three games against the Buccaneers last season, Jerome averaged 11 points, 5.3 rebounds, 2.7 assists while shooting 43 percent from the field.
Winthrop leads the all-time series with Charleston Southern 36-24 and 30-23 in conference regular season matchups, but has lost three of the last four meetings. Since the Eagles captured 17 straight wins in the series, Charleston Southern is 5-3.
The Buccaneers have won two in a row and four of their last four games heading into Saturday's contest. So far this season they are 2-5 on the road, picking up wins at Delaware and Central Arkansas. Charleston Southern is averaging 76.7 points per game on the road and allowing 82.7. The Bucs have also faced New Mexico, Baylor, Alabama, Western Carolina and Florida State on the road. Winthrop and Charleston Southern don't have any common opponents to this point in the season.
There are four players averaging double-figures for Charleston Southern, led by junior Saah Nimley at 13.5 points. Nimley also leads the team with 5.5 assists per game, which ranks third in the Big South. Nimley is just one of four Bucs with 22 or more threes on the season as Charleston Southern leads the country in threes per game heading into this week (11.6) and has the fourth-ranked offense nationally at 87.7 per game.
Nimley had two threes in the victory over Coastal Carolina as the Bucs connected on 13 threes and were led by Will Saunders, who had 16 points after going 5-for-9 from three. Charleston Southern has 10 or more threes in its last six games and 11 of the 14 games this season. Saunders leads the team with 43 triples on the year and shoots 48 percent from downtown.
Saunders is averaging 12.4 points per game while Arlon Harper is second on the team with 12.7 and Matt Kennedy is scoring 11.7 per game.
In the last 16 meetings between Winthrop and Charleston Southern, the team that leads at halftime has gone on to win the game.
