BUIES CREEK, NC— Bjorn Broman scored a team-high 18 points, but the Winthrop men's basketball team fell 77-63 to Charleston Southern in the quarterfinals of the Big South Conference championship at Gore Arena on the campus of Campbell University.
 
WINTHROP (18-12)
STAT LEADERS

• Bjorn Broman (18 points, 2 rebounds, 1 steal)
• Nych Smith (14 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal)
• Adam Pickett (9 points, 10 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals)

CHARLESTON SOUTHERN (17-14)
STAT LEADERS

• Christian Keeling (25 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 block, 2 steals)
• Dontrell Shuler (22 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 block)
• Philandrous Fleming (16 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 steals)

FIRST HALF

• Christian Keeling opened up the scoring with a three as the Bucs jumped out to an early 5-0 lead
• Winthrop got on the board after an offensive rebound by Adam Pickett as he hit Micheal Anumba cutting to the basket for a layup
• Then Pickett drove the lane and scored with his right hand to make it a one point game
• Another 5-0 spurt by the Bucs put them on top 10-4 after an elbow jumper from Travis McConico
• Eagles then used back-to-back threes from Bjorn Broman and Charles Falden to tie the game at 10-10 with 14:14 left
• It was a three-point game with 6:06 to play in the half after Nych Smith scored on a short one-hander in the paint, but Dontrell Shuler and Keeling hit back-to-back threes for a 32-23 advantage with just over four minutes on the clock
• Winthrop cut the deficit to four after Falden made four straight free throws, but the Bucs responded with another three as Shuler drained it with 1:33 left
• Charleston Southern did get its lead back to nine points after Shuler hit his third three of the half with 53 seconds left but the Eagles answered with a Broman triple
• Eagles got the defensive stop to end the half as Charleston Southern led 38-32 at the break
• The Eagles were just 3-for-12 behind the arc and 10-of-29 (34%) from the floor
• The Bucs shot 45 percent and were 7-for-12 from three

 
SECOND HALF

• A three by Pickett with 17:54 left in the game had the Eagles within five, but five quick points by the Bucs that started with a Keeling score at the basket on a stick back and then a three off a turnover for a 47-37 lead
• Anumba answered immediately with a three in the corner to get it back to seven and then Smith scored inside to make it a five point game again with 16:07 remaining
• Bucs went on an 8-0 run  for their largest lead at 54-42 with 13 and a half to play
• The run was stopped when Smith made 1-of-2 free throws to cut the deficit to 11
• Smith followed that up with a three to get the Bucs lead back to single-digits with a little over 12 to play
• Phlandrous Flemming came right back to hit another three to push the lead back to double-fgiures
• McConico then drilled a three after a shot faked cleared his path to push the lead to 15 points at 65-50 with 8:01 remaining
• Broman hit a three with 6:48 to play and was fouled in the act of shooting but missed the free throw and the chance for a four-point play
• The Bucs missed their own chance for a three-point play on the other end when McConico scored at the basket getting fouled but missed the free throw
• Broman hit another three with 7:25 left to cut the deficit to 67-56, his third triple of the game
• The fourth three of the game for Broman came with just over six to play and cut the deficit to eight points at 68-59 as he drained it from the corner off a turnover
• Broman followed that with a backdoor cut that led to a layup and pulled the Eagles within seven points with 5:19 to play
• The Bucs didn't let up as they continued to force turnovers and misses by the Eagles
• Winthrop shot 33 percent in the second half while the Bucs shot 54 percent

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• Winthrop finished the game shooting 34 percent (9-of-30 from three) while Charleston Southern finished the game shooting 49 percent (12-of-23 behind the arc)
• Keeling's 25 led all scorers and four Bucs in double-figures as Shuler had 22, Fleming added 16 and McConico chipped in with 11
• Broman's 18 led the Eagles as Smith had 14 points and Anumba scored 10
• The Eagles had a 39-36 edge on the boards and had 11 offensive rebounds but each team finished with seven second chance points
• The two teams combined for 30 turnovers and a total of 37 points off turnovers

NOTABLES

• Broman hit over 200 threes in his career, but it was a layup that gave him his 1000^th career point
• Broman became the 25^th player in program history to reach 1,000 in a career
• He hit five threes in the game, moving past Michael Jenkins for 5^th all-time as he finishes his career with 224
• Pickett's 10 rebounds were the third time in the last six games he grabbed 10 or more boards
• Eagles fall in their first game of a conference tournament for the first time under Pat Kelsey and the first time since the 2010-11 season
• Winthrop finishes the season with 272 threes, which ranks 18^th most in a single-season in NCAA D1 history and third in Big South history
• The team's average of 12.43 triples per game finishes as the 5^th best single-season average in NCAA D1 history