Hunter Hale steals show early, helps Winthrop defeat Longwood in conference opener
Hunter Hale collected his own rebound — a missed 3-point attempt with seven minutes left in the first half — and didn’t think twice.
The ball had just knocked off the back rim and landed in his hands. Hale then took a dribble, stepped back and launched the shot that would define Winthrop’s 91-67 Big South conference-opening win over Longwood (5-9, 0-1 Big South) Thursday night in Rock Hill.
The shot pushed the Eagles’ lead to 15, the largest of the night at the time.
It contributed to the kind of outside shooting Winthrop couldn’t consistently put together in 2019.
Hale, a 6-3, 185-pound senior guard, scored the Eagles’ first 22 points and finished with a career-high 29, 12 more than his previous high of 17.
“I just do what they ask me to do every time I step foot on the court,” Hale told the media after the game. “Whether its 29, five, 15 — whatever the case may be. As long as we get the win, that’s all that matters.”
The Eagles (7-7, 1-0) shot 16-of-36 (44.4 percent) from three — up from 33.9 the team started the game with. Hale hit six of those threes; senior forward Josh Ferguson hit four threes and ended with 17 points and seven rebounds; redshirt junior guard Chandler Vaudrin hit one three and finished with a triple-double (10 points, 12 rebounds, 11 assists); sophomore guard Michael Anumba hit two threes and ended with eight points; and junior guard Charles Falden hit three threes and ended with nine points.
When prompted, however, Winthrop coach Pat Kelsey praised the defense. It held Longwood to 40 percent shooting and less than 27 percent from beyond the arc.
“I think more than anything to me, the story of the game was how we defended,” Kelsey told the media after the game.
The Eagles jumped out to a 12-4 early lead, led by Ferguson and Hale. With just under eight minutes remaining in the first half, Winthrop led 32-18.
In the final 15 minutes, the margin never got tighter than 20 points.
“When you go home, the first two days are fun, but you miss being with your guys and competing every day,” Vaudrin told the media about winter break. “But it was a good game. I thought we played really well from start to finish.
“We’ve been playing well in spurts, but we couldn’t put a whole 40 minutes together, and I thought we did that tonight.”
NOTABLE
- Winthrop has started 1-0 in the Big South for seven straight years with Thursday’s win.
- Russell Jones only played four minutes. The 5-8, 175-pound freshman guard started most of the season before he suffered an injury at Duke on Nov. 29 and missed the next four games.
- Vaudrin and Hale are both in their first season of Division I competition. “I think he’s going to start coming on now that he’s had this game,” Vaudrin said about Hale after the game. “He’s had some good games, these last few, but it just takes everyone a little bit of time.”
QUOTABLE
Hale’s favorite offensive possession: “I would say my favorite bucket was the one where I saved the ball from going out of bounds to Kyle (Zunic), and Kyle went and kicked it to Ferg (Josh Ferguson) or somebody. I don’t know; it was a long play. But that was my favorite bucket of the day. That play was just nice to me.”
Vaudrin on his triple-double: “The most important thing is winning. And the stats will work itself out however it does... I’d rather have a bunch of assists than score my own points. I just like getting everybody involved.”
Longwood head coach Griff Aldrich on Winthrop’s shooting: “How many did they make tonight? 16? It felt like 36. I thought, especially in the first half, they made some tough shots. We call “parked threes” versus “contested threes.” Hale — credit to him — made some good shots.”
A previous version of the article misstated Longwood’s conference record.
This story was originally published January 2, 2020 at 9:19 PM.
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