ROCK HILL, SC— Xavier Cooks paced six players in double-figures with a game-high 19 points to lead Winthrop to a 106-78 victory over Truett-McConnell, Tuesday evening at the Winthrop Coliseum.
The Eagles are 2-0 for the third straight season and will look for a third straight win on Friday, Nov. 20 at 7 p.m. when they host Jacksonville State. Truett-McConnell fell to 2-3 on the year.
Leading by six points at the break, the Eagles started the second half making their presence felt on the defensive end of the court. Winthrop outscored the Bears 24-6 over the first nine minutes of the second half, which included an 11-0 run. The Eagles ended up holding Truett-McConnell without a field goal for nearly eight minutes to help build their lead to as much as 21 with 10:34 to play.
One of the keys to the defensive effort was locking down the outside shooting of the Bears that connected on eight first half threes. In the second half the Bears hit three, but two of them came in the final six minutes when the lead was over 20 points.
Cooks scored the first six points of the team's 11-0 run early in the second half. He finished the game with his third career double-double as he also grabbed 11 rebounds and had three assists. Cooks was joined in double-figures by
Keon Johnson and
Bjorn Broman with 15,
Adam Pickett with a career-high 13 points,
Duby Okeke with 11 and
Jimmy Gavin finished with 10.
As a team the Eagles shot 49 percent floor while shooting 43 percent from behind the arc (12-for-28). For the second straight game the Eagles shot more than 35 free throws as they finished the game 28-for-39.
Zach Price finished the game with all nine of his rebounds on the offensive glass as the Eagles grabbed a total of 20 as a team and finished with a 47-26 advantage on the boards. The nine rebounds are a career-high.
Truett-McConnell was led by Andretti Lloyd's 19 points on 6-for-11 shooting. J'Quayveon Williams chipped in with 13 points and six rebounds. The Bears finished the game shooting 44 percent from the floor and 50 percent from three (11-for-22).
Winthrop held a 47-41 lead at the break as it outscored the Bears 7-2 over the final 1:51 to build the two possession lead. Gavin scored the final five points of the half as it put the Eagles up six with a baseline drive for a reverse layup with two seconds left.
Over the first 12 minutes of the first half, both teams were shooting well behind the arc as Truett-McConnell was 6-for-8 and the Eagles 6-for-12. The hot shooting behind the arc kept the Bears within a point at 28-27 with 7:46 remaining in the half. Neither team cooled off behind the arc as the Bears were 8-for-13 and the Eagles were 9-for-17 in the first 20 minutes. It was the second straight game the Eagles hit nine threes in the first half. Both teams shot 48 percent from the floor and combined for just nine turnovers.
The Eagles, who scored 102 points in their season opener against Hampton, reached the 100-point plateau in back-to-back games for the first time in the program's history.
