ROCK HILL, SC— Winthrop men's basketball looks to end the regular season on a positive note as it heads to Buies Creek, NC to take on Campbell Saturday afternoon.

GAME SNAPSHOT 
Saturday, Feb. 27, 2016
Winthrop (20-8, 12-5 BSC) at Campbell (12-16, 5-12 BSC)
Game Time: 2 p.m. EST / Site: Buies Creek, NC (Pope Convocation Center-Gore Arena)
Live Video:  Big South Network Television: none Audio: 104.1 The Bridge (pregame 1:30 p.m. with Dave Friedman-PxP/Mike Pacheco-Color)
Live Stats / Live Video / Live Audio





Winthrop Probable Starters
G    1      Bjorn Broman (6.3 ppg, 1.8 rpg)
G    5      Keon Johnson (19.8 ppg, 4.2 rpg)
F    12     Xavier Cooks (14.6 ppg, 6.7 rpg)
F    44     Jimmy Gavin (17.5 ppg, 2.8 rpg)
C    25     Zach Price (6.3 ppg, 4.8 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 Campbell meet for the second time this season and the 34^th time in the history of the series. The Camels handed the Eagles their first home loss of the season, 90-83 on Dec. 31. That loss ended a 12-game winning streak at the Winthrop Coliseum. Campbell leads the all-time series 20-13 and holds a 16-9 advantage in regular season league matchups. Campbell has led the Eagles at the half in six of the last seven meetings.

THE LAST TIME THESE TWO MET
As mentioned earlier the Camels gave Winthrop its first home loss of the season, ending a home winning streak of 12 games. Campbell led 36-27 at the half and held on to win despite allowing 56 points to the Eagles in the second half. The Camels nearly matched the Eagles second half output with 54 points on 58 percent shooting in the second half. Winthrop shot 53 percent in the second half behind nine threes in the half, but couldn't overcome its 35 percent shooting in the first half. Keon Johnson scored 32 points in the loss and was joined in double-figures by Roderick Perkins with 18. Xavier Cooks had just six points while Jimmy Gavin finished with five as the two combined to go 4-for-15 from the floor. Chris Clemson paced the Camels with 30 points as Troy Harper added 21 points as the two combined to go 17-for-29 from the floor and 13-for-15 at the foul line.

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. 24)
The Eagles rank among the nation's best in several categories this season, most notably scoring offense in which they are 14^th at 83.0 ppg. Winthrop also ranks among the Top 50 in field goal percentage (23^rd), blocked shots per game (22^nd), total blocks (28^th), free throw percentage (27^th), free throws made (37^th), three-point field goals per game (36^th), win-loss percentage (44^th) and total threes made (47^th).
Keon Johnson ranks 34^th nationally in scoring at 19.6 ppg and is 31^st in free throws made and 50^th in free throw attempts. Duby Okeke is 17^th in blocks per game and 30^th in total blocks.

PLAYERS TO WATCH
In the first meeting Keon Johnson had 32 points on 10-for-21 shooting and he's coming off 25 points at HPU on Thursday. Johnson has scored in double-figures in 31 straight games. Jimmy Gavin is coming off 20 points in the loss at High Point as he did not score in the second half. In the first meeting with Campbell Gavin was 1-for-9 from the floor and finished with just five points. Xavier Cooks had just six points in the first meeting and is coming off 14 points (all in second half) at HPU. Campbell's freshman guard Chris Clemson leads the team in scoring at 18.5 ppg and had 30 in the first meeting against the Eagles. He scored 19 points in the loss to Radford on Thursday. D. J. Mason posted a double-double in the first meeting with 10 points and 11 rebounds and is coming off a double-double against Radford (20 points, 10 rebounds). Troy Harper, who is second on the team in scoring at 13.5 ppg was 8-for-11 from the field in the win over Winthrop on Dec. 31, finishing with 21 points.   

LAST TIME OUT
Winthrop overcame a 15-point second half deficit to take its first lead of the game at 82-80 with around three and a half minutes left in the game, but fell 87-85 at High Point. It was the third straight contest between Winthrop and High Point at the Millis Center that went down to the final possession. Keon Johnson scored 25 points and Jimmy Gavin added 20 points as the Eagles shot 55 percent from the floor in the game and was 10-for-21 from three (48 percent). The loss ended the Eagles winning streak at four games. HPU was led by Adam Weary's 24 points and John Brown added 19 points and four steals.

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. Campbell is coached by Kevin McGeehan, in his 5^th year with the Camels. He has an overall record of 34-58. .

MILESTONES
Junior Keon Johnson became the 13^th player in the history of the program to reach 1,200 career points and is now the 9^th player in the history of the program to reach 1,300 points. He now has 1,317 career points, ranking 8^th all-time and is 68 points away from 7^th all-time. In his career he's averaging 14.3 ppg and if he were to maintain that average for the remainder of his career (estimation of at least 32 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 32 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 337 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 .838 in his career, which is 4^th all-time. On the season Johnson has made 156 free throws, which is 12 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 186. Duby Okeke is averaging 2.5 blocks per game, which leads the Big South and ranks in the Top 16 in the nation. In 25 games he's blocked a career-high 63 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 109 career blocks and Xavier Cooks has 93 (ranked 9^th all-time). Billy Houston is the all-time leader in career blocks with 139.