Perkins’ shining moment encapsulates Winthrop championship team
According to Synergy Sports, which tracks college basketball players’ movements in great detail, 71 percent of Winthrop redshirt senior Roderick Perkins’ shot attempts in half court offense are jumpers and of those, 98 percent come from beyond the 3-point arc.
As intricate as the details are on Synergy Sports’ site, it doesn’t list the percentage of 3s that Perkins shoots from the corners. That’s his sweet spot, though.
“The corner 3 has been good to me all year,” Perkins said after helping the Eagles to the Big South Conference title Sunday afternoon in Rock Hill.
He played in the first half yesterday like he played for two years at Erskine.
Erskine College basketball coach Mark Peeler
who had Roderick Perkins for two years before he transferred to Winthrop.The 6-foot-5 wing from Smyrna, Ga., scored 15 first half points, hitting 6 of 7 shots and all three 3-pointers - from guess where on the court? - to help the Eagles into a halftime lead before pulling away in the second period to clinch an NCAA Tournament bid.
Perkins has been lurking in the corner all season. It was a soft spot in Campbell’s defense on Sunday as the tired Camels failed to get back on defense several times early in the game. Perkins made the visitors hurt.
“Those guys found me in the crevices and creases of the defense,” he said. “I was in the corner just chilling basically the whole first half and I got some wide open shots and did a good job of executing.”
It was an important contribution from Perkins, who has accepted - and excelled in - a lesser role than the one he enjoyed for two years at Division II Erskine College. In his first college game for Erskine, Perkins scored 26 against Big South school Presbyterian and he averaged 24.9 points per game his sophomore season, second nationally in Division II.
“There wasn’t any question he was probably a Big South player,” said Erskine coach Mark Peeler, who guessed that 75 percent of Perkins’ 3-point attempts at Erskine also came from a corner.
This season Perkins is averaging 7.5 points and 19.5 minutes per game for Winthrop.
“When I came here I already knew I wasn’t gonna be that guy,” he said. “We’ve got great players on the team. We have guys that are elite Division I players.”
Perkins’ attitude, and that of four or five other players that have taken turns stepping up at various moments throughout the 2016-17 season, has been one of Winthrop’s less obvious strengths.
“That was an indicator for our whole season,” said junior Xavier Cooks. “Keon (Johnson) always brings it because that’s what Keon does. But all year we’ve relied on that third scorer, that Rod, that Anders (Broman), that (Joshua Davenport), and tonight Rod was that guy. He played great for us and we really needed that.”
We have two stars, guys know that and accept that and they’re great complimentary pieces around them.
Winthrop coach Pat Kelsey. Xavier Cooks or Keon Johnson have led the Eagles in scoring in 30 of 32 games.
Sunday was a very different Big South championship game experience for Perkins. The lefty shooter broke a bone in his hand in January last season and missed the next 17 games. He returned in the conference tournament final but only played one minute in a crushing defeat against UNC Asheville.
“I always knew I was gonna come back more effective and faster and stronger,” Perkins said, and he did.
He’s lifted the team at key moments throughout the year, whether it was scoring 17 in the regular season win over UNC Asheville, or pitching in a much-needed nine points and five rebounds during Friday night’s semifinal overtime victory against Gardner-Webb. Now Winthrop has a new championship banner to hang and Perkins has the perfect spot in mind.
“I told them to put that banner up in the corner,” he said. “Right in my favorite spot.”
This story was originally published March 6, 2017 at 4:21 PM with the headline "Perkins’ shining moment encapsulates Winthrop championship team."