ROCK HILL, SC— Winners of four straight, Winthrop men's basketball looks to continue its win streak as the regular season comes to an end this week beginning at High Point Thursday night on ESPNU.

GAME SNAPSHOT 
Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016
Winthrop (20-7, 12-4 BSC) at High Point (18-9, 11-5 BSC)
Game Time: 9 p.m. EST / Site: High Point, NC (Millis Center)
Live Video:  none Television: ESPNU (Kevin Fitzgerald-PxP/Adrian Branch-Color) Audio: 104.1 The Bridge (pregame 8:30 a.m. with Dave Friedman-PxP/Mike Pacheco-Color)
Live Stats / Live Video (WatchESPN) / Live Audio





Winthrop Probable Starters
G    1      Bjorn Broman (6.2 ppg, 1.8 rpg)
G    5      Keon Johnson (19.6 ppg, 4.1 rpg)
F    12     Xavier Cooks (14.7 ppg, 6.8 rpg)
F    44     Jimmy Gavin (17.4 ppg, 2.8 rpg)
C    25     Zach Price (6.2 ppg, 4.7 rpg)

BIG SOUTH CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT TICKET INFORMATION
Fans interested in attending the Big South Conference tournament can purchase tickets through the Winthrop ticket office by Feb. 29 if they wish to sit with other Winthrop fans. You can either call (803) 323-2345 or stop by the ticket office to fill out the reservation form. Those tickets can be purchased for the price of $10 a ticket. Tickets may also be purchased for general admission at www.winthropeagles.com under the Ticket link at the navigation bar near the top of the page. All session and individual game tickets may be purchased through that link.

FIRST TO 20 WINS
With the victory over UNC Asheville the Eagles became the first team in the Big South to reach 20 wins. The next closest in total wins on the year is Asheville and High Point at 18 while Coastal Carolina has 16. It is the second 20-win season over the past three years as head coach Pat Kelsey has led his teams to 20 wins in two of his four seasons. It is the 10^th time the Eagles have reached 20 wins in a season since the program moved to the NCAA D1 level in 1985-86.  

SERIES HISTORY
Winthrop and High Point meet for the second time this season as the Panthers will look to avenge a loss in Rock Hill on Jan. 14 while the Eagles look for the regular season sweep. Winthrop has not swept a regular season series with the Panthers since 2007. The Eagles now lead the all-time series 26-12 overall and 19-12 in regular season league contests. Winthrop has lost the last two trips to the Millis Center by a single-point each time. In four of the last five meetings, the game has come down to the final possession.  

THE LAST TIME THESE TWO MET
It's been over a month since the Eagles and Panthers went head-to-head. In the first meeting the Eagles turned in one of their top performances of the season with an 86-66 victory over High Point. Winthrop turned a six-point halftime lead into a 20-point victory by lighting it up from the floor in the second half at 69 percent. Jimmy Gavin scored a game-high 29 points, 16 of which came in the second half as he was 4-for-6 behind the arc in the final 20 minutes. Keon Johnson scored 21 points and knocked down two triples as the Eagles finished the game 10-for-23 behind the arc. The Panthers trailed by just six points at the break despite shooting 33 percent in the first half but the Eagles held them to 36 percent shooting in the second half. Winthrop opened the second half on a 15-6 run over the first three and a half minutes. John Brown finished the game with a double-double scoring 25 points and pulling down 10 boards.

THE MATCHUP
The Eagles enter the game in sole possession of first place in the Big South Tournament and a win assures of them of at least a tie for the regular season Big South regular season title. A loss could possibly set up a three-way tie for first in the league standings. Winthrop brings the top offense in the Big South to the Millis Center, where the Panthers are only allowing 67.6 ppg. The Eagles are averaging 83.0 ppg on the season and 80.9 ppg in league games only. The Eagles have averaged 78 ppg in seven league road games and are shooting 51 percent from the floor in those games. Winthrop has also gone to the free throw line 20 more times than its opponents in league road games. This will be a matchup of the top two scoring teams in the league as the Panthers are averaging 77.1 ppg. Winthrop and High Point are also first and second in free throw percentages and field goal percentages. High Point leads the league in free throw percentage at .751 and the Eagles are shooting .745. Winthrop leads the league in field goal percentage at .482 with the Panthers right behind at .481. This game will also feature the team's top two shooting teams behind the arc as High Point shoots .394 and the Eagles are shooting .377.

WINTHROP NCAA RANKINGS (As of Feb. 23)
The Eagles rank among the nation's best in several categories this season, most notably scoring offense in which they are 13^th at 83.0 ppg. Winthrop also ranks among the Top 50 in field goal percentage (22^nd), blocked shots per game (24^th), total blocks (24^th), free throw percentage (26^th), free throws made (30^th), three-point field goals per game (36^th), win-loss percentage (42^nd) and total threes made (44^th).
Keon Johnson ranks 36^th nationally in scoring at 19.6 ppg and is 29^th in free throws made and 48^th in free throw attempts. Duby Okeke is 18^th in blocks per game and 29^th in total blocks.

PLAYERS TO WATCH
Xavier Cooks is coming off a week in which his efforts turned into Big South Conference Player of the Week honors. He averaged 20.5 points, 9.5 rebounds and 3.0 in helping the Eagles to two victories last week over Coastal Carolina and UNC Asheville. He tied his career-high of 26 points in the win over Coastal and has now scored 20 or more in three of the last five games. He had 17 points, seven rebounds, two assists, and two blocks while going 8-for-8 from the floor in the first meeting. Jimmy Gavin had a game-high 29 points in the first meeting as he hit six threes. He is coming off 26 points in the win over Asheville and has reached 20 or more points in three of the last six games. Duby Okeke played a big role in the win over High Point on Jan. 14 as he tied his career-high of six blocks and also chipped in with six points and nine rebounds. Duby is coming off an eight-point performance against the Bulldogs but has just six blocks in the last five games (the fewest in any five-game stretch this season). John Brown is second in the league in scoring with Winthrop's Keon Johnson and in his last three meetings with the Eagles he's averaging 30.7 ppg and 7.7 rebounds. Adam Weary is averaging 17 points per game over the last three contests and is second on the team in double-figure games with 20. He recently had 26 points in the win over Longwood as he was 14-for-14 at the free throw line. He had 11 points and nine rebounds in the first meeting. 

LAST TIME OUT
The Eagles held on for an 81-80 victory over UNC Asheville behind 26 points from Jimmy Gavin. Xavier Cooks scored 15 points and just missed a double-double with nine rebounds as he also had two blocks. Keon Johnson had 14 points in the win as he was 4-for-9 from the floor and led the team with five assists. He scored what proved to be the game-winning basket when he drove down the middle of the lane and scored while getting fouled. Johnson missed the free throw (had made 32 straight) to put the Eagles up by four points with 10.8 seconds left. The Bulldogs hit a three with six seconds left and then stole the inbound pass, but Gavin turned right around and stole the ball to dribble out the clock. The Eagles shot 49 percent in the game and hit 10 threes in a game for the 12^th time.

THE COACHES
Pat Kelsey is in his fourth season at the helm of the Winthrop men's basketball program. He holds a record of 73-50 in four seasons with appearances in the Big South championship game the past two seasons. The Eagles are 40-26 in Big South games under Kelsey. He's currently ranked 15^th nationally for career wins for head coaches 40 years of age and under. During his tenure the team has a couple of the program's notable victories with wins at Clemson and Auburn and has made back-to-back trips to the Big South Conference Tournament Final. High Point's Scott Cherry is in his seventh season. The 2014-15 Big South Coach of the Year has a career record earned his 100^th career win this season and holds a career mark of 114-100 overall and 73-47 in the league.

MILESTONES
Junior Keon Johnson became the 13^th player in the history of the program to reach 1,200 career points and is soaring into the Top 10 of the all-time scoring list. He now has 1,292 career points, ranking 10^th all-time and is six points away from ninth all-time and 11 points from eighth. In his career he's averaging 14.2 ppg and if he were to maintain that average for the remainder of his career (estimation of at least 33 games to play) he would finish with over 1,700 points, which only one player in school history have achieved. He needs to averaged 17 points over the next 33 games to become the all-time scoring leader in the history of the program. He is the third player to reach 1,000 career points in Pat Kelsey's four years (Keon Moore/A. Smith). Johnson moved into the Top 10 for free throws made and three-pointers made. He's currently made 333 free throws, which is fourth all-time and second most by a Winthrop player at the D1 level.  He is among the top free throw shooters in the history of the program as he's currently shooting .841 in his career, which is 4^th all-time. On the season Johnson has made 152 free throws, which is 16 away setting the single-season record, currently held by Charles Brunson (167 in 1980-81). He's also 8th all-time in made threes with 183. Duby Okeke is averaging 2.5 blocks per game, which leads the Big South and ranks in the Top 16 in the nation. In 24 games he's blocked a career-high 61 shots (2^nd most in a single-season) and the program record for blocks in a season is 66 by Josh Grant in 2002-03. Okeke moved into 5^th all-time with 107 career blocks and Xavier Cooks has 90 (ranked 9^th all-time). Billy Houston is the all-time leader in career blocks with 139.