Kelsey postgame with Friedman / Final 1:35 Of The Game
BUIES CREEK, NC— Winthrop captured a fourth straight victory with a 72-63 victory at Campbell, Saturday afternoon inside the Pope Center.

The victory was also the fifth straight road win for the Eagles as they improve to 13-4 overall and 5-1 in the Big South. Campbell falls to 10-8 overall and 3-3 in the league. Winthrop will be back in action on Thursday, Jan. 19 when it hosts UNC Asheville in a nationally televised game at 9 p.m. in the Winthrop Coliseum.

Keon Johnson led the Eagles with 22 points as he hit the 20-point mark for the 6^th straight game and 10^th time in the last 11 games. Three of his 22 points came at the right moment for the Eagles as Campbell had pulled within five points with a minute and a half to play but Johnson drained a three as the shot clock was about to expire with 51 seconds left for a 69-61 lead. He also made three free throws in the final 36 seconds to seal the game.

Winthrop had built a 12-point advantage with 7:28 remaining in the game after Adam Pickett went coast-to-coast for a layup and a 64-52 lead. Campbell fought its way back as the Eagles went just over six minutes without a field goal before Johnson's big three late in the game.

Johnson was joined in double-figures by Xavier Cooks, who just missed a double-double with 13 points and nine rebounds as he also dished out two assists and had three blocks. Once again the Eagles had good production from its bench led by Josh Ferguson with nine points as he also had three rebounds and a block. The Eagles finished with 29 bench points compared to 10 for Campbell.

Winthrop finished the game shooting 48 percent from the floor while the Camels were held to 38 percent shooting (27 percent in the second half). Winthrop forced 12 turnovers and converted them into 19 points as they finished with nine steals in the game as well.

Campbell was led by the Big South's leading scorer Chris Clemons as he finished with 16 points while Kyre' Hamer had 15 points and Shane Whitfield finished with 12.

Winthrop jumped out to an 8-4 lead early on after a three from Johnson and then another Johnson three put the Eagles up 13-8 at the 16:01 mark. Campbell battled back and tied the game at 15-15 with 13:14 left but Ferguson answered that with a three from the corner and then scored seven straight points for a 7-0 Winthrop run to lead 22-15. The Camels responded with a 12-3 run that included nine straight points to grab a 27-25 lead behind two Marcus Burk three-pointers and four points from Whitfield.

Campbell's Hamer hit a three for a 30-27 lead but that was quickly answered with an Anders Broman three to tie the game with six and a half minutes before halftime. The Eagles outscored the Camels 12-6 over the final six and a half minutes for a 42-36 lead at the break.

Both teams shot the ball well in the first 20 minutes as the Eagles were 17-for-30 (57 percent) and the Camels were 12-for-22 (55 percent).
 
EXTRA DRIBBLE
-Xavier Cooks moved into the Top 10 all-time at Winthrop for rebounds as his nine in the game pushed him to 551 in his career as he now ranks 8^th
-Cooks is now 18 points away from 1,000 points in his career as he looks to become the 24^th Winthrop player to reach 1,000 in a career
-Johnson hit 5 threes against Campbell and now has now hit 4 or more threes in four straight games as he has 240 in his career, just two back of second all-time
-Eagles have won 27 of their last 34 games and 18 of the last 20 vs. Big South opponents
-The win was the 7^th road win of the season and ties the Eagles with Texas Southern, Rider, Canisius and UNC Wilmington for the most road wins in the country
-The Eagles led by six points at the half and since 2004-05 Winthrop is now 19-1 in games it leads by six at the break