Box Score
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ROCK HILL, SC— Winthrop overcame a 14-point first half deficit and held on for an 86-84 victory over Georgia Southern, Tuesday afternoon in non-conference men's basketball action.

The victory is the third straight for Winthrop as it improves to 7-3 on the year while Georgia Southern falls to 6-6. Winthrop has a quick turnaround before its next contest as it will play at St. Louis on Thursday, Dec. 22 at 8 p.m. (EST).

Senior Joshua Davenport made 1-of-2 free throws with 27 seconds to play for an 86-84 lead. Georgia Southern had a chance to tie or take the lead. Mike Hughes put up a three with 10 seconds to play that shot off the front of the rim and was tipped toward midcourt as Jake Allsmiller collected the loose ball. Allsmiller passed the ball up court to Ike Smith, who tried to let a three fly with a second left but Davenport leaped up and blocked the shot as time expired.

Junior Xavier Cooks led the Eagles with 27 points as he also pulled down 10 rebounds to record his 11^th career double-double. Keon Johnson hit the 20-point mark for the fourth straight game as he finished with 22 (17 in the second half). Senior Roderick Perkins joined them in double-figures with 11 points, including a go-ahead three with 52 seconds to play. For the game Winthrop shot 42 percent from the floor, 44 percent from three and 76 percent at the line (25-for-33).

With just over nine minutes to play in the game Johnson fueled the comeback as he scored 11 points in a 13-2 run that tied the game at 67-67 with 6:47 to play. Johnson started off scoring four of his first six points of the run at the free throw line. After Tevin Prescott knocked down two free throws to cut the deficit to five points, Johnson buried a three off an offensive rebound followed by a basket off a drive to tie the game.

The lead changed four more times before Perkins' three from the corner with 52 seconds left put Winthrop ahead 81-79. Prescott then made a big play on the defensive end with a block and then beat his man down the court to finish off a pass from Johnson as he slashed down the lane.

Smith finished with a game-high 28 points as he was joined in double-figures by Tookie Brown with 20 and Hughes added 17. Smith also finished with four assists, two blocks and two steals. Georgia Southern shot 49 percent from the floor, 41 percent from three and 81 percent from the foul line.

Winthrop built a six-point advantage after two Johnson free throws at the 13:25 mark of the first half at 14-8. Georgia Southern answered with a 9-0 run for a 17-14 lead that was ended with Cooks scoring inside. That temporarily stopped a Georgia Southern run as it reeled off 11 straight points. After the Cooks bucket inside, Smith started the run with a three which he followed with a steal and score on the other end. Hughes hit a three to push the Georgia Southern lead to double-figures at 27-16 with 8:48 left as the 11-0 run made it 28-16 with around eight and a half minutes left in the half.

The lead pushed to 14 points for Georgia Southern with 6:09 to play, but Winthrop was able to trim it down to nine points at the break thanks to triples by Johnson, Bjorn Broman and Cooks.

Winthrop shot just 36 percent from the floor in the first half and committed nine turnovers that led to 10 points for Georgia Southern, which shot 50 percent in the first half (12-for-20 inside the arc).
 
EXTRA DRIBBLE
-Eagles have now won 24-of-26 home games and 21 of its last 27 games overall
-Winthrop is 9-2 in games that Cooks records a double-double
-The men's basketball team had never won a game on Dec. 20 in the history of the program as it is now 1-9 all-time on this day
-Eagles have combined for 32 three-pointers in the last three games having hit at least 10 in each of the last three games
-The Eagles went over 10,000 points (10,081) with Pat Kelsey as the head coach as the team is averaging 73.1 ppg in 138 games
-Johnson made all eight free throws in the game and has now made 19 straight since missing his first two in the win at Hampton