CLINTON, SC— Nych Smith scored a career-high 35 points but Winthrop fell 99-91 at Presbyterian College to drop its first conference road game, Saturday afternoon at the Ross E. Templeton Center.
 
WINTHROP (14-7, 6-2 BIG SOUTH)
SCORING LEADERS

• Nych Smith (35 points, 1 rebound, 4 assists)
• Kyle Zunic (10 points, 5 rebounds, 1 assist)
• Micheal Anumba (10 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists) 

PRESBYTERIAN COLLEGE (13-10, 5-3 BIG SOUTH)
SCORING LEADERS

• Adam Flagler (28 points, 3 rebounds)
• Francois Lewis (22 points, 10 rebounds, 1 assist)
• Davon Bell (18 points, 5 rebounds, 15 assists, 1 steal)

FIRST HALF

• The Blue Hose won the tip and Cory Hightower scored at the rim for a quick 2-0 lead
• Winthrop grabbed a 6-5 lead before the Blue Hose went on an 8-0 run
• Adam Flagler and Hightower highlighted the run with a three each
• PC held the lead for the next nine minutes when Nych Smith buried a three and caught fire
• After getting a stop defensively, Smith came back down the floor and hit another three for a 31-27 lead with 9:18 left in the half
• Smith scored the next five field goals for the Eagles as the lead grew to double-figures
• Smith's three with 7:06 left put the Eagles ahead 36-30 and then increased the lead to eight points with a highly contested jumper just inside the three-point line
• With 5:48 left Smith hit another three for a 41-31 lead
• Winthrop pushed its lead to as much as 18 points with three and a half minutes to play in the half
• PC chipped away at the Winthrop lead and cut it to 11 at the half, 55-44
• Eagles shot 61 percent from the floor, 10-of-18 from three and were a perfect 5-for-5 at the foul line
• The Blue Hose shot 52 percent from the floor (5-of-13 from three)

SECOND HALF

• Winthrop struggled shooting the ball in the second half and committed 11 turnovers in the second half
• PC made three of its first five shots of the second half to start digging into the Winthrop lead
• The Eagles's lead was down to seven when Ferguson hit the team's first field goal of the second half when he drained a three for a 58-48 lead
• With just over 13 minutes to play PC caught fire making five straight shots and 8-of-10
• After PC tied the game at 71 all with 8:45 to play, Smith made his sixth three of the game for a 74-71 lead but PC tied the game again off a Winthrop turnover as J.C. Younger hit a three in the corner
• Winthrop led 61-55 when PC started heating up and at the end of the stretch of 8-for-10 by PC the it led 76-74 with 7:27 remaining
• Smith hit a tough jumper to tie the game for the 5^th time in the game and then took a 78-76 lead as Smith found Jermaine Ukeagbu cutting to the basket and he laid it in for the lead
• Younger's three with 4:36 to play put PC in the lead for good as that three started the five consecutive field goals made to finish the game
• Trailing 86-78 the Eagles made their final five shots to shoot 43 percent from the floor in the second half
• PC was able to hold off the Eagles by hitting 7-of-8 free throws over the final minute

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• Winthrop finished the game shooting 52 percent while PC finished shooting 54 percent (57 percent in the second half)
• Flagler's 28 points led five PC players in double-figures as Lewis had 22, Bell had 18, Younger added 12 points and Hightower chipped in with 10 points
• Both teams hit more than 10 threes as Winthrop finished 14-for-36 behind the arc and PC was 13-for-29
• The Eagles had 11 second-half turnovers and finished with 16 for the game as the Blue Hose scored 24 points off turnovers

NOTABLES

• Winthrop put up 55 points in the first half, the 3^rd most scored in a first half this season and the most against a D1 opponent
• It is the third half during league play in which the Eagles scored 50 or more points in a half (1^st or 2^nd)
• Smith's 22 points at the half were the most by any Winthrop player this year, which topped Josh Ferguson's 20 points in the first half at Southern Illinois
• Eagles had 10 threes at halftime, five of which came from Smith as he set a new career-high before half
• Smith became the first Winthrop player to finish with exactly 35 points in a game since Fred McKinnon did so on Jan. 16, 1986 vs. Central Wesleyan and became the just the third different player to hit that number
• Smith also became the 12th differnt player in program history to score at least 35 points in a game
• Eagles are now 49-4 all-time when leading a game by 10 or more points at the half
• Winthrop 14 threes in the game, which is the fourth straight game with 10 or more and the seventh time in the last eight games

UP NEXT
For the first time in a while the Eagles will not have a midweek game as they'll have a few extra days of rest before squaring off against league-leading Radford on Saturday, Feb. 2 at 2 p.m. inside the Winthrop Coliseum.