ROCK HILL, SC—Despite a good shooting performance from the floor, Winthrop couldn't overcome a hot shooting second half by Radford as it dropped its second straight home game with an 85-77 defeat, Saturday afternoon at the Winthrop Coliseum.

The loss drops the Eagles to 8-9 overall and 3-3 in the Big South while Radford improves to 12-7 overall and is now 3-3 in the league. Winthrop will be back in action on Thursday, Jan. 22 when it heads north to Lynchburg, VA to take on Liberty at 7 p.m. The game will air on ESPN3 and the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network.

Winthrop led 69-64 with 6:59 to play in the game when the Highlanders continued their three-point barrage with triples on three consecutive possessions. Cameron Jones started it with three off a dish from Javonte Green and then R.J. Price hit back-to-back threes to put Radford up 73-69 with 5:36 left. That 9-0 spurt highlighted a 13-4 run by Radford for a 79-73 lead with just over three minutes remaining.

Over the next couple of minutes neither team could score but a steal by Duby Okeke set up a Keon Moore three from the corner that cut the deficit to three points with 1:08 to play. Needing a stop the Eagles played strong defense for 23 seconds forcing Radford to call a timeout to set up a play. The ball came into Price with 12 on the shot clock and he hit Green on a pick-and-roll as Green went hard to the basket and banked a shot that bounced a couple of times on the rim but the highly contested shot fell in with 32 seconds left to all but seal the game.

"First and foremost credit Radford," said Winthrop head coach Pat Kelsey. "In a game of runs, ups and downs, highs and lows, they made the timely plays down the stretch and credit them. If you had told me we were going to shoot 54 percent from the field and 40 percent from three this morning before the game I would have felt really good about. I thought we'd win going away and that's because we pride ourselves on our defense. We went up five and they hit three daggers, bang-bang-bang, three threes and that was the difference."

Winthrop finished the game shooting 54 percent from the floor and 40 percent from three as it was led offensively by Keon Johnson's game-high 21 points. He scored 12 of his 21 points from the 17:37 mark of the second half until 14:06 as he held the Eagles overcome a seven point deficit early in the half and lead by 10 with 13:27 to play. Johnson was 9-for-13 from the floor as he hit the 20-point mark for the second consecutive game. Moore joined him in double-figures with 14 points as he finished the game 5-for-10 from the field after sitting 15 minutes of the first half due to foul trouble. Andre Smith added 10 points and six assists.

With 12:29 to play in the game the Eagles extended their lead to 12 points on a Smith three-pointer but Radford responded with 12 straight points to tie the game at 64-64 with just under eight remaining.

The Eagles shot 57 percent from the floor in the first half compared to 42 percent by Radford but trailed 39-38 at the break. Winthrop built a 10-point advantage in the first half with 5:22 left but was outscored 16-5 the rest of the way to trail at the half.  

Radford finished the game shooting 52 percent from the floor after a second half in which it shot 64 percent from the floor and 60 percent from three (6-for-10) while going 16-for-18 at the line. Price paced five Highlanders in double-figures with 20 points while Jalen Carethers had 14. Green and Jones each had 13 points while Ya Ya Anderson chipped in with 12 points.