CONWAY, SC— For the second straight season the Winthrop men's basketball team advances to the VisitMyrtleBeach.com Big South Conference Championship semifinals as it held on for a 67-66 victory over 4
th-seeded Radford, Friday afternoon at The HTC Center.
Winthrop improved to 18-12 with the win as it converted 11-of-12 at the free throw line to earn the one-point victory. The loss drops Radford to 21-11 overall. The Eagles will face 9
th-seeded Longwood on Saturday, Mar. 7 at noon in the first semifinal game of the day. Fans can hear the action on 104.1 The Bridge as Dave Friedman and Mike Pacheco will call the action. The game will also air on ESPN3.
"We beat a very, very good opponent today," said Winthrop head coach
Pat Kelsey, who is now 5-2 in Big South Tournament games. "Radford's an incredibly talented team. Mike [Jones] is a great coach. The last two times we played these guys, they just threw a haymaker and it was sort of curtains at that point. We call it their "binge scoring." When they threw their haymaker today, we came out of a timeout and answered the bell. Our team made big-time plays and made big-time stops down the stretch."
After their lowest scoring first half of the season (21), the Eagles shot 50 percent from the floor in the second half to more than double its total from the first 20 minutes as senior
Keon Moore scored 14 of his game-high 21 points in the second half. Senior
Andre Smith scored 10 of his 18 points in the second half as the two of them combined to go 14-for-16 at the foul line in the final 20 minutes.
Winthrop headed into the final minute of play with a 56-51 lead and every time it converted at the foul line, it seemed as if Radford had a response. The key was the Eagles going 11-for-12 in the final minute as they needed every one of those free throws as Radford was 5-for-8 from the floor and 3-for-5 from three in the final 60 seconds.
The lead for the Eagles stood at 64-57 with 16.4 seconds left in the game after two Smith free throws. The Highlanders didn't go quietly as they hit three straight threes to lose by one. After Smith made the free throws with 16.4 left, Rashun Davis drained a three and then Javonte Green fouled quickly to put Moore at the line. Moore went 1-for-2 and then YaYa Anderson dropped in a three with 5.8 left. Smith made both free throws with 4.4 remaining for a four-point advantage, which proved huge as Davis hit a three with less than a second to play.
Green led Radford with 18 points and 12 rebounds while Anderson added 16 points. Cameron Jones added 13 points off the bench.
The momentum of the game started to turn toward the Eagles midway through the second half. Winthrop trailed by five points and picked up three quick fouls defensively on a single Radford possession that put the Highlanders in the one-and-one with 10:32 to play. Kyle Noreen missed the front end of a one-and-one and then an offensive rebound on the other end led to a Moore three to cut the deficit to 41-39. The Eagles got a stop defensively and then on the ensuing possession Moore buried a deep three from the wing for a 42-41 lead.
Radford did work its way back to a three-point lead on a couple of occasions and led 47-44 when the Eagles went on a 12-2 run over a six and a half minute span to lead 56-49 with 1:20 to play. The big play during that run came when Smith missed and boarded his own jumper and while falling out of bound he whipped a pass to
Keon Johnson for the open three as he knocked it down for a 49-47 lead and the Eagles led the rest of the way. Johnson finished the game with 12 points, 10 of which came in the second half.
Winthrop finished the game shooting 40 percent from the field and 18-for-21 from the foul line (86 percent). Radford also shot 40 percent, but was held to 6-for-22 behind the arc (3-for-19) before the final 16 seconds of the game.
The first half was neck-and-neck as the score was tied on six occasions and there were four lead changes. The Highlanders held the lead for 11:35 of the first half, but never led by more than four points at the 13:50 mark with a 12-8 lead after Green converted a three-point play.
After falling behind by four points, the Eagles reeled off six straight points for a 14-12 lead. Radford slowly worked its way back and into the lead by three points with just over five to play in the half after a layup by Lucas Dyer. Two possessions later, Moore answered as he tied the game at 19-19 with his first three of the game at the 4:22 mark.
The Highlanders took a three-point lead with a minute and a half left when Cameron Jones banked in a one-handed shot. Radford had a chance to increase the lead before half as it held for the final shot but a defensive play by Johnson forced an offensive foul against the Highlanders with a second left in the half that put Johnson at the line for the one-and-one. Johnson's free throw attempt rolled off the rim and out as the Highlanders led 24-21 despite the Eagles missing their final six shots of the half and going just 1-for-9 behind the arc.
The win ends a three-game skid to the Highlanders as the Eagles won their seventh in a row over Radford in the Big South Tournament.
