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ROCK HILL, SC— Winthrop captured its seventh win in the last eight games as it earned an 83-65 victory over league-leading Longwood, Saturday afternoon in the Winthrop Coliseum.

The Eagles improve to 11-4 overall and 3-1 in the Big South while Longwood falls to 6-9 overall and 3-1 in the league. Winthrop will look for a third straight win on Wednesday, Jan. 11 at 6:30 p.m. when it hosts Presbyterian College.

Winthrop led by 10 at the half, but opened the second half building a 20-point advantage over the first five minutes and never looked back. The Eagles hit 10 threes in the game with half of them coming over that five-minute span as Roderick Perkins hit three of them and Keon Johnson knocked down a couple.

Johnson finished with a game-high 20 points as he was 8-of-16 from the floor and 4-for-9 from three as he also had four assists and six rebounds. Perkins finished the game with 13 points as he scored all of them in the second half. Xavier Cooks posted a double-double for the second straight game and 14th time in his career, finishing with 13 points and 11 rebounds while dishing out four assists. Anders Broman was the fourth Eagle in double-figures as he scored 10 off the bench.

Perkins opened the second half scoring with a three and then Cooks came away with a steal that led to a Johnson three and a 40-24 lead in the first 1:07 of the half. The two teams traded baskets on each end for a couple of minutes before Joshua Davenport put the Eagles up by 17 on a drive to the basket and Perkins made it 55-35 after Longwood's Isaiah Walton couldn't get a three to fall.

Winthrop pushed the lead to as much as 28 points with 6:41 to play when Duby Okeke flushed a pass from Cooks. Winthrop shot 47 percent in the second half to finish the game at 42 percent.
Kris Lane led the Lancers with 14 points while Darrion Allen and JaShaun Smith had 12 and Isaac Belton finished with 11. Longwood shot 48 percent in the second half and finished the game shooting 45 percent from the floor.

Winthrop took advantage of 18 Longwood turnovers as it finished with a 31-8 advantage in points off turnovers and scored 14 points off 17 offensive boards.

Longwood opened the game scoring the first five points and led 9-4 early on, but the Eagles used an 11-0 to take a 15-9 lead with 13:24 to play in the half. It started with a couple of free throws from Cooks as five different players as Johnson, Davenport, Adam Pickett and Anders Broman all hit shots. Broman capped the run off with a corner three that forced a timeout by Longwood.

It was a four-point game with six and a half minutes left in the half when the Eagles used a 6-0 spurt to build its first double-figure lead of the game. Cooks completed a three-point play and then Anders Broman hit another triple with 4:20 on the clock. Pickett scored on a drive down the lane with 1:39 left for a 12-point lead but a dunk by Kris Lane cut it back to 10 at the break, 34-24.
Winthrop held its 10-point halftime lead despite shooting just 36 percent from the floor and just 3-for-15 from three as it scored 16 points off turnovers and had nine second chance points.

EXTRA DRIBBLE
-Keon Johnson is now two points shy of becoming the program's career leader in points scored by NCAA D1 players and will look to pass LaShaun Coulter for that spot in the next game vs. PC on Wednesday
-Xavier Cooks now has back-to-back double-doubles for the second time in his career
-Winthrop has now won seven straight games against Longwood and 14 of their last 17 Big South opponents
-Johnson is now 12 three-pointers behind second all-time held by Tyson Waterman with 242
-This was the 28th victory in the last 46 wins that the Eagles won by 10 or more points
-Tonight was his 32nd game of his career with 20 or more points
-Joshua Davenport had eight points and the Eagles are now 17-4 all-time when he scores seven or more in a game
-For the 8th time this year the Eagles hit at least 10 three-pointers in a game and it's the sixth time in the last eight games