ROCK HILL, SC—Winthrop men's basketball dropped its first home game of the season as it couldn't hold off a hot shooting Campbell team in a 90-83 defeat, Thursday afternoon at the Winthrop Coliseum.
The loss ends a 12-game home winning streak for the Eagles as they falls to 9-4 on the year and 2-1 in the league. Campbell ends a two-game skid as it improves to 8-5 overall and 2-1 in the Big South. Winthrop will quickly turn the page as it is back in action on Saturday, Jan. 2 at 2 p.m. when it travels to Conway, SC to take on Coastal Carolina.
Keon Johnson tied his career-high of 32 points as he scored 27 of them in the second half. He led all scorers and was one of two Eagles in double-figures as
Roderick Perkins added a career-high 18 points. Both Johnson and Perkins combined for 38 of the team's 56 points in the second half as they tried to rally the Eagles. With just over 12 minutes left in the game Johnson did his best to keep the Eagles in the game by scoring 12 consecutive points. He also pulled down a career-best eight rebounds.
After trailing by nine at the break, Winthrop fell behind by as much as 16 points midway through the second half and battled back to pull within double-figures a few times but in the end the Camels made the plays they needed to pull off the road win over the Eagles.
Winthrop had the deficit down to seven points with 4:51 to play in the game after Johnson hit his fourth three of the game, but Campbell answered right back as Troy Harper hit a deep three from the wing. The deficit was down to single-digits again with 4:11 to play after two
Jimmy Gavin free throws, but again Campbell responded with a three as Chris Clemons hit one of his two threes in the game.
Trailing by 10 with just under a minute to play after a Kyre' Hamer jumper just outside the paint as the shot clock was about to expire.
Jarad Scott drained a three with 42 seconds left and then the Eagles forced a turnover. Gavin's three didn't fall but
Duby Okeke boarded the miss and dunked to make it a five-point game. After Campbell's Hamer went 1-for-2 at the line, the Eagles came down and had two looks from three by Johnson, but he couldn't get them to drop.
Clemons finished with a team-high 30 points as he was 9-for-18 to lead a Campbell offense that shot 54 percent from the field. He was one of four players in double-figures as Harper finished with 21 while Hamer had 16 and D.J. Mason added 10.
Winthrop shot just 35 percent from the field in the first half and 1-for-7 from three as it just couldn't seem to get the ball to roll in its favor. Of the team's 19 missed shots in the first half, seven of them were layups and it appeared that every time the ball bounced on the rim it wouldn't fall. While the Eagles were struggling from the field, Campbell was hot as it shot 50 percent in the first half (4-for-10 behind the arc).
Campbell used the three ball to build its double-digit lead in the first half as it led 17-13 and then hit back-to-back threes from Rod Days and Harper. Perkins answered with a three for the Eagles, but then Mason drilled a three from the wing and Campbell led 28-16 with 8:43 left in the half. The remainder of the half the Eagles were able to outscore the Camels 11-8 to keep the game within single-digits at the break with Campbell leading 36-27.
