Winthrop men's basketball team looks to continue winning ways in Big South

By Gary McCann - gmccann@heraldonline.com

In the cellar a week ago, Winthrop's Eagles, by beating High Point tonight in the Winthrop Coliseum, can jump to at least a tie for third in the Big South Conference standings.

It's going to be a year, coach Randy Peele said, when "every league game is a key game."

Winning at home, which the Eagles have done better than anyone in the conference over the past 10 seasons, becomes even more important.

"It's huge," said Peele, whose team snapped a 10-game losing streak by edging Liberty 59-57 at home on Saturday. "Going into the last game, I made a big issue with our team about what our record at home has been the last four years."

The Eagles are 2-2 at home this season, which is a slump compared to the past. Counting those games, Winthrop is 59-6 at home in the past five seasons. Since the 1998-99 season, the Eagles are 125-20 at home, including a 63-9 regular season mark against league teams. Winthrop hasn't lost more than four games at home since the 1997-98 season.

High Point (4-9 overall, 0-3 Big South), 2-22 against Winthrop all time, has never beaten the Eagles in the Winthrop Coliseum.

If the Eagles are going to catch league-leading VMI (4-0), they can't afford a stumble at home, having already lost road games at Radford and VMI. VMI already has three road wins and is the league's only unbeaten team. But every team has at least one win except High Point.

"If one team has separated itself in the league," Peele said, "it's VMI. My philosophy is this. If you win at home, you're at zero. If you lose at home, you're minus-one. If you win on the road, you're plus-one."

And there's no doubting the fact the Eagles are a different team at home this season. Their two wins have come at home and they lost to East Carolina and College of Charleston at home by a combined four points.

"The reason teams are better at home," Peele said, "is they're more aggressive on offense and defense."

That was certainly the case in the win over Liberty. The Eagles shot 42 percent, with 16 assists on 22 field goals. The passing was better and, with freshman point guard Reggie Middleton leading the way, they attacked the basket on the drive. They also held the hot-shooting Flames to 40 percent shooting overall, 26 percent on 3-pointers. Peele's goal was to hold Liberty to 55 points. They missed that by two.

"It's the only way" was Peele's quick answer when asked if his team was going to have to play a lot of games around the 60-point mark to win.

If there's been a team in the Big South struggling more than Winthrop, it's Bart Lundy's Panthers. Their four wins have come against three non-Division I teams and North Carolina Central, which is moving up to Division I. the Panthers are shooting 41 percent, 29 percent on 3-pointers.

In the league, the Panthers are averaging a league-low 58 points, shooting 37 percent overall and a league-worst 14.3 percent on 3-pointers. The Panthers have missed 60 of their 70 3-point attempts.

Lundy has what could be the youngest team in NCAA Division I, with 13 players who are either freshmen or sophomores. In 13 games, he's had 10 players who have started, same as Winthrop, with only Eugene Harris and David Singleton starting every game.

Harris is averaging 13.4 points, but shooting just 37 percent. In the past few games, Lundy's most consistent performer has been 6-foot-8 freshman Steadman Short from Simpsonville. Short, who was recruited by Winthrop, had 17 points and 13 rebounds in Saturday's loss at Coastal Carolina.

"They are young, but talented," Peele said. "They're more athletic and quicker than we are. We have to guard. They have lots of pieces.

"They haven't been shooting it particularly well, but they can really push the ball. Transition defense is going to be our focal point. We can't give them easy baskets."

And the Eagles will need to get some easy ones.

"We defend better when we score," Peele said.

Byron Faison came off the bench to score a career-high 16 points against Liberty. The 6-1 sophomore hit half of his 12 shots overall and 4-of-7 3-pointers. He's been sharing time at shooting guard with freshman Andre Jones in Peele's shooting-guard-by- committee approach.