Farmville, Va.– Sin'Cere McMahon led four Winthrop players in double-figures with 17 points but the Eagles fell 92-88 at Longwood, Saturday afternoon in a matchup of the North and South Division leaders in the Big South Conference.
WINTHROP (13-8, 6-2 Big South)
STAT LEADERS
LONGWOOD (15-5, 7-0 Big South)
STAT LEADERS
- Justin Hill (29 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 steals)
- Isaiah Wilkins (16 points, 6 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 block)
- DeShaun Wade (18 points)
FIRST HALF
- Cory Hightower opened the scoring with a corner three but Longwood answered with a three after two offensive rebounds to make it 3-3 in the opening 46 seconds
- With the Eagles trailing 7-5, Sin'Cere MacMahon hit threes on back-to-back possessions to give the Eagles an 11-7 advantage with just under 13 minutes left in the half
- Winthrop nearly held the Lancers under 10 points in the first 10 minutes of the game as the Lancers tied the game at 11-11 at the 10:41 mark
- The story of the first half was the final seven minutes with the Eagles leading 17-15 following a Micheal Anumba jumper
- In the final seven minutes the Lancers were 8-for-11 from the floor and hit all four threes to help lead to a 38-27 advantage at the half
- Winthrop was 3-for-8 from the field and 2-for-6 from three in that span
- Longwood finished the half shooting 48 percent while the Eagles shot 39 percent
- The teams combined for 20 turnovers as the Eagles had 11
SECOND HALF
- Eagles opened the second half with a defensive stop and then scored five straight points to make it a two possession game
- D.J. Burns Jr. scored inside and then on the next possession Drew Buggs found Anumba open and he drilled a three
- Eagles were within four points after McMahon connected on his fourth triple of the game to make it 43-39 with 16:05 remaining
- Longwood pushed its lead back to nine points, but a stick back by Chase Claxton followed by a steal from Claxton that led to a Buggs three got the Eagles within four points again with 14:33 to play
- Following a second straight turnover by Longwood, the Eagles cut the deficit to 48-46 after Claxton hit two free throws
- With 10:11 left, Nate Lliteras drilled a three for a 63-54 lead and on the ensuing possession for the Eagles Burns Jr. was called for an offensive foul that was ruled a flagrant as the Lancers made both free throws to lead 65-54 with 10:06 to play
- After two free throws from Watson put Longwood up 13, Russell Jones Jr. came down and dropped in a three to make it a 10 poiacnt deficit
- Eagles got the deficit down to eight points on back-to-back possessions but Longwood answered with points each time and led 71-61 with a little over seven minutes left
- Eagles had a couple of opportunities trailing by five points with defensive stops but couldn't take advantage
- Hill put the Lancers on top 76-59 with 4:09 left after he made two free throws
- The deficit was back to five points with 4:09 to play after Burns Jr. hit two free throws
- Buggs made a layup to pull the Eagles within four points and after a defensive stop the Eagles had a chance to cut the deficit to one or two points
- On the offensive possession Cory Hightower had a three go in and out as Buggs collected the miss and Hightower had another look at three but couldn't get it to fall as Talford rebounded the miss but lost the ball out of bounds
- Longwood went down and Wade hit a deep three for an 82-75 with 1:55 to play
- Trailing 83-77, Buggs drove down the lane and scored while being fouled as he made the free throw to complete the play and cut the deficit in half with 1:29 to play
- The Lancers got a big shot as the shot clock was winding down when Wilkins hit a straight away three for an 86-79 lead with 59 seconds remaining and held on for the win
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- Winthrop finished the game shooting 52 percent after shooting 63 percent in the second half
- Longwood finished the game at 49 percent but was 14-of-25 behind the arc (56 percent)
- The Eagles finished 13-for-27 from three (48 percent) as McMahon finished with a game-high five triples
- Both teams shot well at the free throw line as the Eagles were 17-for-21 (81 percent) and the Lancers were 22-of-23 (96 percent)
- Hill finished the game a perfect 12-of-12 at the foul line as he finished with a career-high 29 points
- Longwood outrebounded the Eagles 30-27 and had a 10-3 advantage in second chance points
- Anumba joined McMahon, Hightower and Buggs in double-figures posting 12 points on 4-of-5 shooting and was 2-for-2 behind the arc
NOTABLES
- Winthrop wrapped-up a stretch of five games in 10 days with four of the five games on the road
- Eagles finished the stretch at 3-2 with road two road wins
- Eagles hit 13 threes, the 10th time this season making 10 or more in a game
- Winthrop had won the previous five meetings with the Lancers and six straight at Willett Hall
- With the loss the Eagles finish with a 24-3 record in the month of January over the last three seasons
- Hightower hit double-figures for the 69th time in his career while Buggs posted double-figures for the 39th time
- McMahon became the 5th different Eagle to hit five threes in a game this season, joining Patrick Good, Josh Corbin, Hightower and Jones Jr.
- It was the ninth time this season an Eagle had five or more threes
UP NEXT
Winthrop will have a few extra days between games as it will be back in action on Thursday, Feb. 3 at 7 p.m. when it hosts North Carolina A&T as part of the Big South Conference ESPNU Wild Card series.
To keep up with the latest news on the Winthrop men's basketball program, follow the Eagles on Twitter (@Winthrop_MBB), Instagram (@Winthrop_MBB) and Facebook (/WinthropEagles).
