It wasn't always attractive, but after what they've been looking at lately, this was exactly what the Winthrop Eagles have been looking for.

They broke out of their disastrous early- season run in dramatic fashion Thursday night, beating Presbyterian 59-56 for their first conference win and first win over a Division I team this season.

But in the immediate aftermath of a win they had to fight for all night, none of that mattered.

"I love to win ugly," Winthrop coach Randy Peele said. "I love it when you have to play ugly, you have to play half-court, you have to play physical.

"If you can't play that way, you can't win games on the road, and you can't win a championship."

After an 0-5 start, winning a championship was the furthest thing from reasonable expectations.

Senior guard Andre Jones, who hit the game-clinching 3-pointer with 51 seconds left - and barked at the Hollerin' Hose fans all the way back downcourt - admitted there were moments when confidence was in short supply.

The fact Presbyterian was coming off a win over then No. 20 Cincinnati only compounded the worry.

"I won't lie, there were days when it's like, 'Are we ever going to win?'" said Jones, who finished with a game-high 24 points. "But I was in the cafeteria the other day, and one of the ladies looked at me and said, 'All the tough ones are over.' It was hard, though, and we didn't see the whole picture while we were down in the Virgin Islands.

"But now, we know when we get down and play the kind of defense we're used to playing, we can win games like this, against what we know is a good team."

The defense was the significant factor in this one, but that's what they're accustomed to playing against Presbyterian (3-4, 0-1 Big South). Four of the last six games in the series were decided by three points or fewer, allowing Peele to call "I told you so," on a midweek prediction of another one-possession game.

But it was what the Eagles did when Presbyterian had the ball that was most impressive.

Reggie Middleton made the last of Winthrop's seven steals, and the fact his dunk came after the clock expired didn't diminish his joy.

"We knew this team was tough," Middleton said. "We knew we had this kind of game in us, ever since practice on Monday, we just had a feeling we were getting things right."

The biggest thing they did was keep power forward Al'Lonzo Coleman from becoming a factor, aggressively doubling him every time he received the ball.

It helped that Coleman picked up his second foul with 3:30 into the half, sat the rest of the first and finished with just eight points and six rebounds.

His teammates weren't able to pick up enough slack, either, making just 36.7 percent of their shots (18-of-49) including a ridiculous 2-of-21 from 3-point range.

That marked the first time this season the Eagles had held a Division I opponent (the win over Central Penn shouldn't count for much) under 40 percent from the floor.

"We hadn't done that," Peele said. "And I'll be honest, I was concerned about it, because we hadn't done it and I wasn't sure when we were going to.

"Tonight was the first time we had really locked somebody down."

It helped that they began hitting shots in the second half, making 13 of 25 from the floor after the break (52.0 percent) after just 10 of 30 in the first half (33.3 percent).

But as much as they scrapped on the defensive end, they had to patch together a lineup.

Starting small forward Joab Jerome (plantar fascitis) went through warm-ups, but yielded his spot in the starting lineup after it didn't go well. His usual backup, Gideon Gamble, played five minutes, but was obviously limited because of the lingering effects of back surgery.

That left junior Reggie King to pick up more minutes than he's accustomed to, and he played solid defense throughout the night on Presbyterian's Khalid Mutakabbir. He also made several key plays of the intangible kind, like taking charges and getting in passing lanes that kept the Eagles (2-5, 1-0) afloat.

"Ever since my freshman year, Coach told me to be ready whenever," King said. "Tonight they needed me, and I tried to give as much energy as possible."

Percentages: FG .418, FT .533. 3-Point Goals: 5-9, .556 (Jones 3-4, Middleton 2-3, Smith 0-2). Team Rebounds: 0. Blocked Shots: 1 (Morgan). Turnovers: 15 (King 4, Jones 3, Middleton 2, Morgan 2, Valentine 2, Smith, Diop). Steals: 7 (Jones 3, Smith 2, King, Middleton). Technical Fouls: None.

Percentages: FG .367, FT .720. 3-Point Goals: 2-21, .095 (Mutakabbir 1-5, Miller 1-7, Hargrave 0-1, McTavish 0-1, Washington 0-3, Johnson 0-4). Team Rebounds: 0. Blocked Shots: 2 (Washington, Johnson). Turnovers: 15 (Miller 4, Reynolds 3, Coleman 3, Johnson 2, Clyburn, Washington, Mutakabbir). Steals: 8 (Mutakabbir 4, Johnson, McCray, Washington, Coleman). Technical Fouls: None.