Winthrop seeks 11th road win at Longwood Wednesday

Winthrop men's basketball seeks its 11th road win of the season when it travels to Farmville, Va., Wednesday night to take on Longwood at 7 p.m.

As of Tuesday, Feb. 14 the Eagles are tied with Vermont and Belmont for the most road wins in the nation (10). Belmont is done with its road games for the regular season while Vermont and Winthrop are both on the road Wednesday evening.

More importantly, Winthrop (19-6, 11-3 Big South) will try to keep pace with league-leading UNC Asheville and Liberty. The Eagles bounced back from its double-overtime loss in Asheville with a 77-71 home win Saturday over Gardner-Webb. Xavier Cooks’ 23 points and 10 rebounds led the Eagles, and also was the team’s game-high assist man.

During Cooks’ career the Eagles are 5-0 when he leads the team in points, rebounds and assists in a game. Cooks has scored 20 or more in back-to-back games and is seventh in the league with 15.6 points per contest, and third in rebounding (8.3).

Winthrop’s leading scorer Keon Johnson was just 2-for-19 from the floor, but 11-for-12 at the foul line and finished with 15 points. Johnson is closing in on 1,900 career points (1,889), a mark that only 12 other players in league history have reached. In his last five games he's averaging 29.6 points, 4.2 rebounds and three assists, while shooting 47 percent from the floor, 44 percent from three and he's 37-for-39 at the foul line (95 percent).

Johnson leads the team in scoring on the road (24.5 points) where he’s shooting 45 percent. He's scored 20 or more in nine of the 12 road games he's played.

Longwood is looking to put an end to an 11-game losing streak as they are coming off a 91-69 loss to Asheville at home. Longwood is down to seven available scholarship players after a number of injuries.

Leading the way offensively is Khris Lane, who is fifth in the Big South in scoring (16.2 points per game) and fourth in rebounding (7.3). Guards Isaiah Walton and Darrion Allen are also dangerous offensive pieces for the Lancers.

This story was originally published February 14, 2017 at 4:53 PM with the headline "Winthrop seeks 11th road win at Longwood Wednesday."