RADFORD, VA— Bjorn Broman scored a career-high 29 points, but Winthrop dropped its first conference game with an 85-79 loss at Radford, Wednesday evening. The Eagles are now 7-6 on the year and 1-1 in the league while Radford is 9-6 and 2-0 in the Big South.
WINTHROP LEADERS
RADFORD LEADERS
- Ed Polite Jr. (23 points, 12 rebounds, 2 steals)
- Christian Bradford (12 points, 2 rebounds)
- Randy Phillips (15 points, 12 rebounds, 2 blocks)
FIRST HALF
- Winthrop made four of its first six shots of the game (3-for-3 behind the arc) and trailed 12-11 with 16:03 left
- At that point Radford reeled off 11 straight points as the Eagles went cold from the floor
- The shooting woes continued for the Eagles as they hit just three of their next 21 shots
- After a Bjorn Broman three that made it a 24-14 lead for Radford, the Highlanders went on a 10-2 run sparked by threes from Ed Polite Jr. and Justin Cousin
- Eagles spent majority of the half in foul trouble in the post as Josh Ferguson had two, Jermaine Ukaegbu and Austin Awad had three
- The bench for Radford was a big key for the big first half offensively, outscoring the Eagle bench 24-3
- The Highlanders had 11 points off turnovers and 10 second chance points
- Radford shot 51 percent from the floor while the Eagles shot 34 percent as the Highlanders led 53-31 at the break
SECOND HALF
- Eagles opened the second half on a 7-2 run and pushed it to 10-4
- Winthrop started the half 1-for-5 from the floor, made its next three shots but then went 0-for-4
- Trailing 64-44, the Eagles reeled off seven straight points, including a Bjorn Broman three to pull within 13 points with 9:39 to play but Polite Jr. answered with back-to-back triples for a 70-51 lead
- With 3:08 to play, Winthrop cut the deficit to 12 points as Xavier Cooks found Adam Pickett in the corner and he buried a three
- Bjorn Broman scored on the drive on the next possession to cut it to 10 points at 76-66 with 2:20 left
- After Radford went back up by 12, Cooks made two free throws to make it a 10-point game again with 1:58 to play
- Eagles got the miss they needed on the ensuing Radford possession, but Randy Phillips grabbed two straight offensive rebounds and hit a layup for an 80-68 lead with 1:22 left
- Josh Ferguson scored with 1:05 left to make it a 10-point game again as the Eagles decided to start fouling after the basket to see if they could the Highlanders to miss some free throws but Calik Jones made the first of the one-and-one for an 11-point lead
- The Eagles went down looking to cut the deficit to single-digits but Cooks lost the ball driving in the lane as Radford went down to hit two free throws for an 83-70 lead
- Winthrop continued to foul and back-to-back threes by Bjorn Broman made it a seven-point game with 16 seconds left
- Bjorn Broman hit another three with four seconds to make it a six-point game
- Winthrop shot 55 percent from the floor in the second half, which included 8-for-14 behind the arc
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- After opening the game 4-for-6 from the floor, the Eagles finished the remainder of the first half just 7-for-27 from the floor that included a stretch of 1-for-12 and 3-for-21
- Polite Jr. entered the game 9-for-51 behind the arc in his career (18%), but finished the game 5-for-9 behind the arc
- Radford won the battle of the boards with a 46-29 with 15 offensive rebounds and 16 second chance points
- Bjorn Broman destroyed his career-high in points (18 was previous best) with 29 points on 10-for-13 shooting (7-for-9 from three)
- The seven triples are also a career-high
- Both teams combined for 25 made three-pointers (Winthrop 13, Radford 12)
- Every single point of the second half was scored by a starter from both teams
NOTABLES
- The Eagles had a winning streak vs. league opponents in regular season matchups come to an end at six
- This was the first time the Eagles trailed by 20 or more points against a league opponent since Feb. 2, 2016 at Liberty when the Eagles trailed by 20
- This was just the second loss during Pat Kelsey's tenure the team lost a game in which both teams hit 10 or more threes (now 9-2)
- The Eagles fell one-point shy of 80, which they had scored 80 or more in four straight contests vs. Radford
- In 2016-17 the Eagles started the season 1-1 (first loss was to Radford) but still finished league competition with a 15-3 mark
- Winthrop has still won 27-of-33 regular season games against league competition
ON TAP FOR WINTHROP
Winthrop plays a second consecutive road game as it travels to Buies Creek, NC to take on Campbell on Saturday, Jan. 6 at 2 p.m.
