CONWAY, SC— Winthrop men's basketball dropped its second straight Big South Conference contest as it fell 82-63 at Coastal Carolina, Saturday afternoon at The HTC Center.
The loss drops the Eagles to 9-5 overall and 2-2 in the Big South. Coastal Carolina improves to 8-6 overall and 2-2 in the league. Winthrop looks to end its two-game skid on Wednesday, Jan. 6 as it travels to Asheville, NC to take on UNC Asheville at 7 p.m.
Trailing by 14 at halftime, Winthrop came out of the break like it needed to with a 7-2 run and cutting the deficit to single-digits with 18:20 to play after a
Jimmy Gavin triple.
Zach Price started off the run with a basket in the lane and then
Xavier Cooks scored on a drive before Gavin drained the three.
However, Coastal responded with six straight points and a 15-2 run and never allowed the Eagles to chip away at the deficit too much as it finished shooting 52 percent from the floor. The Eagles shot 52 percent from the floor in the second half as they tried to cut into the Coastal lead, but the Chants shot 50 percent in the half to hold off the Eagles.
Gavin led Winthrop with 19 points while he was joined in double-figures by Cooks with 12 and
Keon Johnson with 10. Winthrop finished the game shooting 46 percent from the floor, but was just 3-for-22 from three and 8-for-20 at the foul line.
Coastal was led by Elijah Wilson's the Chants with 17 points while Badou Diagne added 15 points and Jaylen Shaw had 10. The Chants were 7-for-21 behind the arc and 11-for-15 at the free throw line.
Turnovers and not being able to get shots to fall in the first half led to Coastal Carolina grabbing a 41-27 lead at the break. Winthrop shot 39 percent from the field, but was just 2-for-15 behind the arc and 3-for-9 at the free throw line. Coastal finished the half shooting 53 percent and were 3-for-3 from the foul line and 4-for-13 from three.
The Chanticleers used a 15-5 run in the final 10 minutes of the first half to open up a double-figure lead, 36-20 with 2:43 to play. Diagne highlighted the run with seven straight points and 10 of 12 points for Coastal. Diagne started his string of points with a transition dunk as Wilson laid the ball off to Diagne, who was trailing the play. He then drained a three from the corner to make it a 10-2 run, putting the Chants up 10. After Shivaughn Wiggins hit a tough fade away jumper off the glass, Diagne scored on a drive and was fouled in the act as he completed the three-point play for the 16-point advantage.
The first half was close over the first 10 minutes and was tied 15-15 after a Cooks basket off a drive, but then Coastal closed out the remainder of the half by outscoring Winthrop 26-12 over the final 9:52.
