Winthrop men’s basketball vs. Pfeiffer: An unsurprising score, but an exciting game
Clarification: A previous version of this article misstated Winthrop’s record against non-Division I opponents. It has since been fixed.
There are two ways to synthesize the Winthrop men’s basketball team’s 127-83 win over Pfeiffer in the Coliseum in Rock Hill on Monday night.
Here’s the first: Chandler Vaudrin brought the ball up for the game’s first possession after the opening tip — and what he did would be emblematic of what would happen all night.
The 6-foot-7 guard scored without much of a move: He crossed over at the top of the key, and once his defender cut him off going right, Vaudrin started backing his smaller opponent down until he was just about underneath the basket. He then jumped, turned mid-air and his floater hit off the back-right rim and dropped in the basket. 2-0, Winthrop.
In a scene, this was what the Winthrop men’s basketball team’s night was like: It wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t surprising. And it was a game that Vaudrin — despite going 4-5 from the field with eight assists and eight rebounds — wouldn’t pound his chest.
“I was just trying to get comfortable again,” Vaudrin said postgame. “I really hadn’t played great the last couple of games, and for me, I was just trying to be as clean as possible.”
It was just another bucket — just like the game was just another win. The Eagles (4-3) haven’t lost to a non-Division I opponent under head coach Pat Kelsey. They’re now 22-0 in this respect.
Now, here’s the other way to tell the story: The Eagles scored the game’s first 12 points, but the way the Falcons responded is what made the game exciting.
The Falcons kept shooting. They kept running. They kept playing as if the game wasn’t stacked against them — as if the contest’s proverbial pendulum would swing back in their favor at some point.
They’d swap out by the platoon — 15 players got meaningful minutes before the last media timeout — and they’d keep playing fast. By the second media timeout, the Eagles only had a seven point margin.
At halftime, the Falcons only trailed by 15. It was 59-44.
The game would only pick up speed from there: With 12:01 remaining in the game, the arena’s announcer spoke over the speakers, stating that if Winthrop scored over 90 points, fans could take their ticket stubs and get a deal at a local pizza joint. At that point, Winthrop was up, 81-54.
Once the clock hit zeros, Winthrop had seven players in double figures; Pfeiffer had two. Winthrop collected 61 rebounds; Pfeiffer only collected 38.
But in the “exciting” statistics, Pfeiffer hung tough: Winthrop knocked in 13-of-39 threes; Pfeiffer hit 13-of-38. Winthrop collected 16 offensive rebounds; Pfeiffer, 13. And even though Winthrop shot 19 more shots than Pfeiffer (90-71), the Eagles shot 19 less free throws than the Falcons (39-20).
“They’re a great team that plays fast, and we knew that, and we had to bring that transition defense, so we did that today,” Kyle Zunic, who finished with 13 points on 5-5 shooting, said after the game. “I think that we really did well in getting back in transition, making sure that we’re talking to each other in transition. And I thought it was just a great game on our behalf.
“But credit to them. They do really well on pushing it up the floor.”
NOTABLE: ‘A basketball retreat’
Last year, Winthrop defeated Pfeiffer by 35 points — not too different, in the scheme of things, than the margin this year.
But last year’s game — an 134-99 Winthrop win — didn’t feel good, Kelsey said..
“They lit us up last year,” Kelsey said. “We won the game by 25-30 points, whatever it was, but they hung 100 on us in our gym. It was almost like when they walked off the floor, it felt like they won.”
In preparation for this game, specifically, Kelsey said he handed out a paper exam that was meant to test how well his players knew the Pfeiffer scouting report.
“A bunch of the guys aced it; a couple of the guys got high C’s, which I was a little disappointed in,” Kelsey said with a smile. “We had a couple really tough days of practice. We had a couple long practices this weekend. They had a volleyball tournament (in the Winthrop Coliseum). There was some type of event going on at the West Center, so we had to practice at a high school way out in Fort Mill because we couldn’t get one locally, so it was kind of like a basketball retreat.
“We just got away, closed the doors. It was just us. And I thought it was a really productive couple days of practice.”
QUOTABLE: Upcoming against Duke
Vaudrin on upcoming game against Duke: “A lot of tradition at Duke, obviously. We all know that. But I’m just really excited,” he said.
“It’s one of those childhood games that when you’re in the backyard, you’re thinking of playing teams like Duke. And now that we get to do it, we’re going to prepare the same that we do for each and every game because we give our opponent the ultimate respect. We’re going to tip it up and have a lot of fun.”
Zunic echoed Vaudrin’s sentiment of being excited of playing Duke because of its prestige, plus: “The guy from Australia, Jack White, is playing there, so it would be cool to go up against him,” he said with a smile. “You know, a bit of trash talk there, too. I played with him this summer, so that’ll be fun.”
One of two total mentions of Duke from Kelsey: “It doesn’t matter who the opponent is. It doesn’t matter if it’s Duke on Friday or Pfeiffer, it’s the same attention to detail and scouting report.”
This story was originally published November 25, 2019 at 11:10 PM.
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