ROCK HILL, SC—Winthrop men's basketball has entered the final two weeks of the regular season and has four games remaining starting with hosting UNC Asheville on Wednesday, Feb. 18 at 7 p.m. in the Winthrop Coliseum.
The Eagles held off a comeback attempt by Gardner-Webb last Saturday to improve to 9-5 in the Big South and remain just one game out of first. Winthrop is now 14-11 on the year and will face an Asheville team that is 13-12 on the year and tied with the Eagles at 9-5 in the conference.
The game is available on the Big South Network or fans can tune into 104.1 The Bridge to listen to David Friedman call the action.
Coastal Carolina won at Radford Monday night, which created a two-way tie for first, a two-way tie for second and a two-way tie for third as the Eagles and Bulldogs are 1.5 games back from first.
Winthrop continues to feature one of the Big South's top offenses led by senior
Keon Moore as he has been on a tear over the last few weeks. Moore had 27 in the Eagles' win over Gardner-Webb on Feb. 14 and is 11-for-15 from three in the last two games (26.5 ppg). He has shot over 50 percent from the floor and 60 percent three times in the last five games while averaging 22.2 ppg. In that span he's shooting 60 percent from the floor and 69 percent from three (20-for-29). After his performance behind the arc last week Moore has moved to 5
th nationally in three-point field goals per game and three-point field goal percentage (leads the Big South in both).
After his 27 points against the Runnin' Bulldogs, Moore now has 11 20-point games on the season and 19
th in his two-year career with the Eagles (54 games). On the year he ranks 4
th in the Big South at 18.8 ppg and is second in league games only at 20.5.
Senior
Andre Smith is second on the team in scoring at 11.2 ppg and sophomore
Keon Johnson is averaging 10.8 ppg as the two of them along with Moore have combined for 172 three-pointers on the season. Smith has a chance to become the 21
st player in the program's history to score 1,000 points in a career as he is just 11 shy. Johnson led the Eagles with 22 points in the first meeting with the Bulldogs while Moore had 13. Winthrop is averaging 73.8 ppg this year (2
nd in the Big South) and 73.4 in league games (4
th).
Freshman
Xavier Cooks is third on the team in scoring in the last five games as he averages 7.8 points as well as leading the team at 7.0 rebounds per game in that span as well. He's shooting 58 percent from the field in those games and also averaging 1.6 blocks. Cooks and freshman
Duby Okeke each have a team-high 39 blocks on the years they are both chasing the program's block record for a freshman of 44 that was set by Chris Malcom in 2008-09.
In addition to its offense, the Eagles defense has been strong at defending the perimeter as it ranks first in the Big South in three-point field goal percentage in all games and league games only. The Eagles have held opponents to 30 percent shooting in Big South play and 32 percent in all games. They rank third in all games for field goal percentage defense and first in conference games only. Four of the Eagles opponents in conference play rank in the Top 50 nationally in three-point field goals made and they are playing three of the four consecutively that started with Gardner-Webb (23
rd), Asheville (50
th) on Wednesday and Longwood (46
th) this Saturday, Feb. 21.
The Bulldogs are coming off their second home loss in league play as they fell 69-65 on Feb. 12 against Presbyterian College after defeating Gardner-Webb earlier last week to move into a tie for 1
st. Asheville has won four of the last six games including the road wins at Longwood and Gardner-Webb.
Sophomore Andrew Rowsey continues to lead the Bulldogs in scoring at 18.8 per game while David Robertson is second on the team at 10.9 ppg. Rowsey is one of the top shooting guards in the Big South as he's made 78 threes (12
th most nationally) and is shooting 36 percent behind the arc. He's the best free throw shooter in the league at 92 percent (107-for-116), which ranks 6
th nationally.
The offense has averaged 70.4 ppg in league play and 68.4 on the road. In their last road game, the Bulldogs blistered the net for 63 percent from the field despite going 7-for-18 from three. So the Bulldogs were 73 percent from the floor inside the three-point line.
Rowsey is coming off a 24-point performance in the loss to the Blue Hose as he was 8-for-18 from the field and 6-for-12 from three. In the first meeting with the Eagles he scored 16 points on 6-for-19 shooting and 3-for-13 behind the arc.
This will be the 70
th meeting all-time between Winthrop and Asheville as the Eagles lead the series 37-32. Out of the 69 meetings to this point, 34 of the games have been decided by 10 points or less. Winthrop has only faced Coastal Carolina more times (79).
