ROCK HILL, SC— Winthrop had a season-high 11 blocks as it turned in a strong defensive effort in a 74-61 win over Liberty, Wednesday night at the Winthrop Coliseum.

The Eagles end a stretch of three games in five days and four games in seven days with a 3-1 record as they are now 13-10 overall and 8-4 in the league. The loss drops Liberty to 6-18 on the year and 0-11 in the Big South. The Eagles have now won eight straight against the Flames.

After the recent stretch, Winthrop will get some well-deserved rest as it won't be back in action until Wednesday, Feb. 11 when it travels to High Point, NC to take on High Point at 7 p.m.

Winthrop withstood every effort by the Flames to get back in the game after trailing by 12 at the half as it allowed the lead to get under 10 just once in the second half. Andrew Smith completed a three-point play to make it a 55-47 game with 7:48 to play when Andre Smith and Keon Moore responded with three-pointers on back-to-back possessions. The Eagles held off the Flames from there for a second straight win and fifth win in the last six games.

The second half had a pretty even flow on the scoreboard as  Eagles would go up 14-15 points only to see Liberty trim the lead to 10-12 and then Winthrop go back up 14-15. Smith hit a few run stoppers on the night as he scored five straight points with less than six minutes to play after Liberty had cut the lead to 10 points.

In addition to the 11 blocks, the Eagles held Liberty to 36 percent shooting in the game (21 percent in the first half). After a first half of shooting 41 percent and building a double-figure lead, Winthrop shot 58 percent from the floor in the second half and 54 percent from three (6-for-11). Winthrop finished the game at 48 percent from the field, 10-for-25 from three and 18-for-22 at the foul line.

Smith led all scorers as he finished with 21 points behind a season-high five threes as he was 7-for-13 from the field. Moore added 18 points on 6-for-9 shooting as he was 4-for-7 from three and also snagged six boards. Sophomore Keon Johnson joined them in double-figures with 12 points and freshman Xavier Cooks added 10. Cooks filled the stat sheet with seven rebounds, three assists, a career-high five blocks and three steals.

Cooks finished with his five blocks while freshman Duby Okeke had four blocks and Tevin Prescott added two as the Eagles finished with the most blocks in a Big South contest since they had 11 in a win over VMI on Jan. 7, 2010.

Theo Johnson led Liberty with 14 points and three steals while David Andoh added 13 points.

The first eight and a half minutes of the game were even as the teams were tied at 8-8 with both struggling to find any rhythm offensively. But a Moore three at the 11:24 mark got the Eagles going as they used a 16-2 run to open up the game and lead 24-10 with five minutes left in the half.

A big part of the run was the defense of the Eagles holding the Flames without a field goal for nearly eight minutes while they opened up a 15-point advantage. The drought ended when Theo Johnson was credited with a basket inside as Okeke was called for goaltending.   

Winthrop extended the lead to 17 points with 1:52 to play in the half after Moore hit two free throws but the Flames finished the half scoring the final five points to make it a 33-21 lead for Winthrop at the break.
A big part of the Eagles defense was the interior efforts of Okeke and Cooks, who combined for six of the team's seven blocks in the first half.

The Eagles shot 41 percent from the floor in the first half while holding Liberty to 21 percent and 0-for-5 from three.