ROCK HILL, SC—Winthrop heads toward the mountains of North Carolina in hopes of ending a two-game skid as it takes on Big South Conference rival UNC Asheville Wednesday night.

GAME SNAPSHOT 
Winthrop (9-5, 2-2 BSC) at UNC Asheville (10-5, 3-0 BSC)
Game Time: 7 p.m. EST / Site: Asheville, NC (Kimmel Arena)
Live Video: Big South Network Television: none / Audio: 104.1 The Bridge (pregame 6:30 p.m. with Dave Friedman/Mike Pacheco)
Live Stats / Live Video / Live Audio





Winthrop Probable Starters
G    1    Roderick Perkins (6.4 ppg, 2.9 rpg)
G    5    Keon Johnson (20.5 ppg, 4.0 rpg)
F    12   Xavier Cooks (13. ppg, 6.2 rpg)
F    44   Jimmy Gavin (16.4 ppg, 2.7 rpg)
C    25   Zach Price (6.1 ppg, 4.9 rpg)

SERIES HISTORY
Winthrop and Asheville meet for the 71^st time and the 30^th time in the month of January. The Eagles lead the all-time series 38-32 and have won the last four meetings. Last season Winthrop captured its first win over the Bulldogs in Kimmel Arena since it became the home court of UNC Asheville. Winthrop is 2-3 in the last five trips to Asheville to take on the Bulldogs. The first ever meeting came on Nov. 21, 1984 as UNC Asheville prevailed 71-66 and won the first three games of the series.

THE MATCHUP
This matchup will feature a Winthrop team looking to avoid going below .500 in league play and a UNC Asheville team hoping to remain unbeaten in the league standings. Winthrop has not been under .500 in conference play since the 2012-13 season when it started off 0-3 in the Big South and finished 6-10. The Eagles are still leading the conference in scoring at 83.5 ppg while Asheville ranks 5^th at 75.7 ppg.  In Big South games only, Winthrop ranks 2^nd in scoring at 75.8 ppg and Asheville is third with 75.3. Winthrop started off the season 9-3, but has dropped two straight while Asheville has won three straight and eight of the last nine. The Bulldogs are the top ranked defense in the league for scoring average, allowing just 65.9 ppg and third in defensive field goal percentage (.417).
 
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Junior Keon Johnson is coming off his lowest point total of the season, but is still second in the league in scoring at 20.5 ppg and last season averaged 17.5 ppg against the Bulldogs. Plus with each game Johnson continues to climb the all-time scoring list at Winthrop as he's now 21^st. Jimmy Gavin led the Eagles with 19 points in the loss at Coastal Carolina and has averaged 17.3 ppg on the road this season while shooting 45 percent from the field and 35 percent behind the arc. Asheville has a very balanced attack led by Dylan Smith, who leads the team in scoring despite coming off the bench in all 15 games. The freshman is scoring 13.1 ppg while shooting 43 percent from the field and 40 percent from three. He's the top scoring threat behind the arc for Asheville with 35 made on the year. Dwayne Sutton is coming off 16 points and 13 rebounds in the win at Liberty and is second on the team in scoring at 12 ppg. Ahmad Thomas is fourth on the team in scoring and put up a career-high 27 points in the win at Liberty.

JOIN THE CLUB KEON
Junior Keon Johnson joined an elite club as he became the 23^rd player in the program's history to reach 1,000 points in his career. The 5-7 guard from Mansfield, OH drilled a three for his 18^th point of the game which gave him 1,000 in his career. He finished the game with a team-high 25 points and now has 1,017 in 77 career games (ranked 21^st in school history). In his career to this point he's averaging 13.4 ppg and if he were to maintain that average for the remainder of his career (estimation of at least 47 possible games to play) he would finish with over 1,600 points, which only two players in school history have achieved. He is the third player to reach 1,000 career points in Pat Kelsey's four years (Keon Moore/Andre Smith).Johnson also joined an elite club of 30-point scores as he recorded his third of the season and his career with 32 in the loss to Campbell. He became just the fourth player in the history of the program to reach 30-points or more for a third time. Charles Brunson has the most 30-point games with nine and Fred McKinnon had five while Johnson is now tied with Torrell Martin for the third most with three.

LAST TIME OUT
The Eagles suffered their second straight loss as they fell 82-63 on the road to Coastal Carolina. Winthrop was led by Jimmy Gavin's 19 points as Xavier Cooks added 12 and Keon Johnson scored 10. Coastal Carolina shot the ball well and finished shooting 52 percent for the game after shooting 53 percent in the first half and 50 percent in the second. The Eagles had won the last two meetings during the regular season at The HTC Center. Defensively the Eagles forced 15 turnovers by the Chanticleers, but were only able to convert them into four total points. Winthrop was also 8-for-20 at the free throw line, despite entering the game ranked 19^th nationally in free throw percentage at .762.

THE COACHES
Pat Kelsey is in his fourth season at the helm of the Winthrop men's basketball program. He holds a record of 61-45 in four seasons with appearances in the Big South championship game the past two seasons. The Eagles are 30-22 in Big South games under Kelsey. During his tenure the team has a couple of the program's notable victories with wins at Clemson and Auburn. Nick McDevitt is in his third year as head coach of the Bulldogs after spending 10 seasons as an assistant at Asheville. In his head coaching career at Asheville he's 42-31 overall and 23-14 in the Big South.

MILESTONES
Johnson reached 1,000 points in his career so his next milestone he's now moved into the Top 10 for free throws made. He's currently made 259 (9^th) in his and is among the top free throw shooters in the history of the program as he's currently shooting .843 in his career, which ranks fourth all-time. Duby Okeke returned to the lineup after missing three games and is now averaging 2.82 blocks per game, which leads the Big South and ranks in the Top 20 in the nation. In 11 games he's blocked 31 shots and the program record for blocks in a season is 66 by Josh Grant in 2002-03. Okeke moved into 9^th all-time with 77 career blocks and Xavier Cooks has 63. Billy Houston is the all-time leader in career blocks with 139.