Winthrop comes back to beat Radford in triple-overtime thriller
Winthrop overcame a 15-point first-half deficit to beat Radford 92-88 in triple overtime Saturday afternoon.
Radford jumped out to a 20-5 lead with 12 minutes left in the first half, but host Winthrop closed the half on a 25-11 run to cut its deficit to 31-30 at halftime.
“We were frustrated early offensively,” Winthrop head coach Mark Prosser said. “I felt like we were a bit on our heels at the defensive end of the floor, and I felt [Radford was] a little too comfortable. And you could see that by how many points they had in the first couple of wars. I felt like when we turned up the pressure a little bit, when we started to be a more aggressive version of ourselves, we started to impact, and we started to dictate a little bit. When we do that, we’re pretty good; we just can’t wait 10 minutes into the game to do that.”
The rest of the contest was a battle, with neither Winthrop nor Radford able to extend its lead beyond five at any point.
Tied at 67 at the end of the second half, Winthrop had a shot at the buzzer to take the lead but missed.
Tied at the end of the first two overtime periods, Radford had a chance at the buzzer to win the game, but those missed as well.
Finally, in the third overtime, Winthrop outscored Radford 11-7 to pull away.
Senior forward Kelton Talford scored a season-high 27 points for Winthrop, including 13 combined in the three overtime periods.
“It’s always whatever we needed for me to do to get the win,” the Great Falls native said. “I just want to thank the coaching staff for putting me in a position to do that. My teammates, first and foremost. The passes they threw, just the way they looked for me down the stretch. A lot of trust from those guys in me and just excited to have that.”
It was a special night for Winthrop, which was honoring the Winthrop Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2024.
That class included the 1998-99 Winthrop men’s basketball team as a Team of Distinction — the first team in program history to make an NCAA Tournament appearance.
Coach Gregg Marshall and several members of the team and staff were in attendance Saturday.
“We stand on their shoulders,” Prosser said. “The reason all these banners are up here and the reason we call guys like [senior guard] Nick Johnson and that people know Winthrop is because of what they started and put Winthrop basketball on a national pedestal. They had an event a couple of nights ago, and our kids went to it. There was the Hall of Fame induction last night, and it was a lot of fun, and our coaching staff was there. It was just all about this program and building this program and where this program can be.”
This is Winthrop’s (13-6, 4-0) third comeback overtime victory in its four conference games.
Prosser was proud of the way his team played en route to its perfect start to conference play so far.
“We have guys that have been around basketball a long time,” he said. “We have experience and guys that have been through a lot, but anything that sort of pops up in overtime or situations where they’re down five or whatever it is, they don’t blink at it. I think that shows itself in its resiliency.”
“It’s one of the reasons ... I’m so excited about our team because I feel like we have so much more room to grow, and we’re trying to play our best basketball at the end of this month, moving into next month, and, obviously, moving into March. It’s nice to be able to correct our made mistakes after a win. You get a little bit more attention maybe in the next film session. But we have a long way to go, and we can get better, but we’ll worry about that later. We’re going to enjoy this one right now.”
Johnson finished with 20 points and six rebounds, while fellow senior Kasen Harrison posted 18 points, five rebounds and two steals.
Winthrop’s next game will be at home against UNC Asheville at 7 p.m. Jan. 18..
The game has been chosen as the Big South Wildcard broadcast and will be televised on ESPNU.
This story was originally published January 13, 2024 at 12:00 AM.