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ROCK HILL, SC—Winthrop senior guard Keon Moore connected on a career-high seven threes as he scored 25 points to help the men's basketball team celebrate "Homecoming" with an 82-59 victory over Pfeiffer University, Saturday afternoon at the Winthrop Coliseum.

Moore's 25 points is two shy of his career-high as he paced three Eagles in double-figures as Winthrop captured its season opener for the third straight season. Winthrop will quickly turn its focus to Clemson as it heads up the road to Clemson, SC on Monday, Nov. 17 for a 7 p.m. matchup. The game will air on Fox Sports South.

The Eagles led by 19 at the break quickly pushed the lead to 26 less than four minutes into the second half, but Pfeiffer responded by outscoring the Eagles 11-2 over the next three and a half minutes to cut the deficit to 17 points with 13:10 to play. Winthrop scored six straight, including four points from redshirt freshman Duby Okeke steadily held a 20-point advantage the rest of the way. Winthrop led by as much as 27 points in the second half with 4:44 to play after a lay-up by Tevin Prescott.

"Obviously the positive first and foremost is we are 1-0," said Winthrop head coach Pat Kelsey, in his third year at the helm. "It's nice to win the first one. We talk to our guys all the time about the season being a marathon and not a sprint and putting all your focus and attention in each one of these games that you have to play. Learn from it. Take the positives and the negatives and then close the book and move forward to the next one."

For the game, Winthrop finished shooting 44 percent from the field and 39 percent from three as it ended the game 11-for-28 behind the arc. The Eagles knocked down 10 points in their season opener in 2013-14 and ended up hitting 10 or more threes in a game 11 times last season.

Both teams combined to shoot 56 free throws in the game as Winthrop was 17-for-25 from the line and Pfeiffer is 21-for-31.

The Eagles used a 15-3 run over a five minute span to open up a 17-point advantage with 3:51 to play in the half. The run began with a basket inside by Keon Moore, who grabbed a rebound and went back up immediately to lay it in. Moore followed that with a three-pointer on the ensuing possession. After Pfeiffer's Justin Finch cut the lead back to single-digits with a jumper in the lane, Derrick Henry drove the lane and crafted his way to the basket for a lay-up and a 26-16 lead.

Sophomore Josh Davenport scored the next three points for a 29-16 lead followed by a steal from Andre Smith that set up an emphatic dunk by Tevin Prescott over a Falcon player for the team's largest lead at 31-16 with 4:38 remaining in the half. The lead increased to 17 points to cap off the run as Moore knocked down his fourth three.

Moore ended up with five threes in the first half, tying his career-high, to help the Eagles to a 40-21 lead at the break. Moore was 7-for-10 from the field and 5-for-7 from three as Winthrop shot 45 percent from the floor and held Pfeiffer to 36 percent shooting.

Senior Andre Smith was just 4-for-14 from the field but he finished with 12 points and career-highs in assists with eight and steals with five. Okeke, playing in his first collegiate game after sitting out last season with an injury, finished with 10 points, four rebounds and a block in 12 minutes. Sophomore Jarad Scott scored six points and tied a career-high of 10 rebounds in 20 minutes as he made his second career start. In addition to Moore's 25 points, he also pulled down eight rebounds.

Mike Smith led Pfeiffer in scoring with 15 points as he had two assists and two steals as well. Josh Calhoun came off the bench to score 14 points as he was 8-for-9 from the foul line and Keith Jumper added 11 points.