CONWAY, SC— Winthrop placed four players in double-figures led by sophomore Keon Johnson's 18 points but couldn't overcome a hot shooting second half by Coastal Carolina as it fell 81-70 in the Big South Conference Championship, Sunday afternoon at The HTC Center.

Winthrop, which made its 13^th Big South Conference Championship game appearance, falls to 19-13 on the year. Coastal Carolina improves to 24-9 on the year and earns the Big South Conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

"First thing I want to do is congratulate Coastal Carolina," said Winthrop head coach Pat Kelsey. "They were better than us today and that happens sometimes. We live to see another day and hope to see them down the road. Tip of the cap to the Coastal Carolina crowd as well for creating a hostile environment." 
Johnson was joined in double-figures by senior Keon Moore with 16 points while freshman Xavier Cooks and senior Andre Smith each had 14 points. Cooks finished with a double-double as he hauled in a career-high 12 rebounds.

Moore, who was named to the Big South Conference All-Tournament Team for the second straight season, reached a couple of milestones during the game. He became the 22^nd player in school history to score 1,000 points as he did so in 61 games at Winthrop. Moore is just the second player in the program's history to score 1,000 points in his first two seasons as an Eagle. In the first half Moore's second three of the game gave him 101 on the season, passing the previous record of 100 set by Michael Jenkins in 2006-07.

Coastal Carolina opened the second half with seven unanswered points that led to a 15-4 run to open up the game after it was tied at the half. The run propelled the Chanticleers to an 11-point advantage with 12:56 to play in the game. Coastal held a consistent 9-12 point lead the remainder of the game as it had an answer every time the Eagles tried to cut into the deficit.

"We felt like we had momentum going into halftime, but that spurt out of the half was a big shift in momentum," added Kelsey. "They're a veteran team with a lead in a big game, that's tough to come back from."

The lead stretched to 70-54 with 4:59 to play in the game but the Eagles fought their way back to nine points with a 9-2 run to make the deficit nine points at 72-63 with just over three minutes to play. The run started with Smith triple and then after Warren Gillis scored on the other end, Johnson answered with a three. The run was capped off by a Cooks stick back as he boarded a missed jumper by Johnson. There were two opportunities to cut the deficit to six or seven points but Smith's three wouldn't fall and Moore missed a jumper in the lane.

The Chanticleers shot 52 percent from the floor in the second half and shot 23 of their 31 free throws in the game in the second half. The Eagles shot 36 percent in the final 20 minutes and finished the game shooting 38 percent. Winthrop was just 7-for-22 from three (32 percent), but committed just five turnovers in the game. Coastal finished the game 9-for-22 behind the arc.

Gillis led all scorers with 22 points as he also dished out six assists to lead the Chanticleers. Elijah Wilson, who scored six straight points to push the Chanticleer lead to 16 points, finished with 19 points. Josh Cameron added 13 points while Badou Diagne had 11.

Winthrop fell behind by as much as nine points with 12:23 remaining in the first half but a bank three at the buzzer from Smith tied the game at 38-38. The Chanticleers had just taken the lead 38-35 on a Cameron three from the corner as Gillis drove and kicked it out to the open man. Winthrop inbounded the ball to Johnson who whipped a pass up court to Smith, who then took a dribble outside the three-point line and fired the last second shot of the glass and in.

The offense for Winthrop got off to a slow start as it took nearly nine minutes to reach 10 points, making just six of its first 20 shots. Trailing by nine, the Eagles made 6-of-8 shots to finish the half, including Smith's three.

Coastal led for the majority of the half and built its nine point lead behind solid three-point shooting and getting to the basket.

Despite struggling from the field in the first 10 minutes, Winthrop shot 41 percent in the first half while Coastal shot 43 percent.

Winthrop became just the second fifth seed in Big South history to reach the championship game.