Amid a season of ups and downs, Winthrop basketball players say team’s bond got stronger

Winthrop’s mens basketball team saw it’s share of ups and downs this season.

Here are some of the ups:

• The team brought in three transfers to bolster the roster.

• They had a big comeback win at home over UNC Asheville on New Years Eve. UNC Asheville won the Big South Conference title and now is headed to the NCAA tournament.

• A four-game winning streak to end the regular season.

• Forwards Kelton Talford (first team) and Cory Hightower (second team) are named to the Big South All-Conference team.

  And here are some of the downs:

• The Eagles lost last year’s Big South Player of the Year, D.J. Burns, to the transfer portal. He went on to a starting role at N.C. State University.
• Lost graduate guard Micheal Anumba to injury.
  
  
• Went 3-8 over an 11-game stretch and lost guard Isaiah Wilson to a season-ending injury.
  
  
• Lost guard Howard Fleming Jr. to a season-ending injury.
  
  
• Had a three-game losing streak in February.
• Lost to Radford 78-69 in the quarterfinals of the Big South Men’s Basketball Championship Friday night.

However, head coach Mark Prosser said he is proud of how his team worked hard throughout the season. He said things out of their control forced Winthrop into some tough spots, but they stood firm.

“As that adversity struck and different things happened throughout the course of the year, these kdis never batted an eye,” Prosser said. “That’s our expectation level. That’s what we do at Winthrop. Every time we put that uniform on, we expect to win no matter where it is.”

For Talford, one of the big things he will retain from this year is how much stronger the bonds grew among the players and the staff.

“It’s a brotherhood now,” the 6-foot-7 junior said. “Going through the adversity we did, everybody buying in and sticking together and supporting one another. It drew us closer. It’s more of a brotherhood than teammates at this point.”

Transfer guard Kasen Harrison said: “It’s just the relationship that we formed with each other. We had a lot of new people come in. On some teams, when a lot of new people come in, it don’t really work, and I feel like we all made it work. We all had a tight bond together.”

Harrison scored a career-high 26 points for the Eagles in the loss, while Talford posted a double-double with 20 points and 12 rebounds.

The Eagles finish the season at 15-17.

This story was originally published March 3, 2023 at 11:42 PM.