ROCK HILL, SC— Winthrop ended its three-game skid in Big South Conference play with an emphatic 86-66 victory over league-leading High Point, Thursday night at the Winthrop Coliseum.
The Eagles win their second straight overall as they improve to 11-6 overall and even their league mark at 3-3. High Point ends its winning streak at four games as it falls to 12-5 overall and 5-1 in the Big South. Winthrop will look for three in a row on Saturday, Jan. 16 when it hosts Liberty at 4 p.m. in the Winthrop Coliseum.
Jimmy Gavin and
Keon Johnson combined for 50 points as they sparked a big second half for the Eagles as the team shot 69 percent from the floor in the half, including 7-for-10 behind the arc. Gavin scored 16 of his game-high 29 points in the second half while Johnson poured in 14 of his 21 points in the final 20 minutes.
Leading by six at the break, Winthrop opened the second half outscoring the Panthers 15-6 over the first three minutes and 42 seconds as Gavin buried three triples during the run. The lead remained 13-15 points over the next three and a half minutes before the Eagles put together an 8-0 run to push the lead to 21 points with just under 11 minutes to play. Johnson started the run with a three followed by a jumper after tracking down the ball following a block by High Point's Anthony Lindauer.
Bjorn Broman capped off the run with a three in the corner as
Joshua Davenport made one extra pass to Broman open in the corner.
High Point did respond with a 9-2 run to pull within 14 points with 9:29 left in the game, but the Eagles stood their ground and over the next four and a half minutes pushed the lead back to 20 points after two free throws by Gavin. One of the main sparks in holding off the Panthers came right after they pulled within 14 with eight and a half left as
Duby Okeke received a pass in the post from Gavin, turned and quickly dunked the ball as a High Point player challenged the shot. That was followed by an
Xavier Cooks dunk as he drove down the middle of the lane after an offensive rebound by the Eagles and slammed with down with two hands.
John Brown led the Panthers with 25 points as he recorded his 16
th career double-double with 10 rebounds as he was 12-for-23 from the field. Joining Brown in double-figures were Lorenzo Cugini with 12 and Adam Weary added 11. Weary also pulled down nine rebounds and had two steals.
The Eagles finished the game shooting 56 percent, their third straight contest shooting 50 percent or better from the floor. Winthrop finished 10-for-23 behind the arc, led by Gavin's 6-for-11 performance. High Point came in to the game leading the Big South in field goal percentage, but the Eagles held them to just 34 percent in the game.
Winthrop looked ready from the get go as Gavin lobbed a pass to Cooks as he flew from the base line and flushed the ball home for the first basket of the game. That sparked a 7-0 run to open the game by the Eagles as Cooks accounted for all seven points. He followed up his dunk with a three-pointer from the wing and finished off the run with a jumper in the lane.
High Point responded with nine consecutive points as Cugini started it off by drilling a three followed by a Weary jumper. Brown then scored four consecutive points for a 9-7 advantage three and a half minutes into the game.
With the game tied at 15-15 midway through the first half, Winthrop put together an 8-0 run for a 23-15 lead behind six points from Gavin, but High Point answered with six straight to cut it to two points with a little over five minutes remaining after a tip-in by Brown.
Johnson's free throws with 3:51 left started a 7-0 run that put the Eagles in front by double-figures at 32-21 in just a minute and 48 seconds. Johnson completed the run with a three-point play as he finished at the rim and then knocked down the free throw. The Panthers did cut the deficit to four points with under a minute to play but Johnson's floater in the lane with 18 seconds was the last basket of the half as the Eagles led 37-31 at the break.
Winthrop shot 45 percent from the floor in the first 20 minutes while holding High Point to 33 percent shooting. Winthrop did have 11 first half turnovers, that the Panthers converted into eight points and posted 13 second-chance points to keep the Winthrop lead to single-digits.
