Chase Claxton, the ‘next play’ soldier, scores 19; Winthrop hoops wins 12th straight
Winthrop’s Chase Claxton did something he’d never done before — to put his program in a position to do something its never done before.
Claxton, the 6-7, 180-pound freshman forward from Greenville whose value is rarely reflected in the box score, scored a career-high 19 points in his team’s 104-71 win over UNC Asheville on Saturday afternoon at Winthrop Coliseum in Rock Hill. He did so without deviating from how he’s scored all season: finishing off backdoor cuts, cleaning up offensive rebounds and the like.
“Of course it feels good to score 19, but I hang my hat on defense, rebounding and everything else,” Claxton told reporters postgame. “It feels good and all, but I’m really proud of our defense’s performance, which was pretty good like usual.”
With the win, the Eagles (16-7, 10-0 Big South) have won 12 in a row — something that’s only happened four times in the men’s basketball program’s history. The streak is the longest one by a Big South team since Coastal Carolina won 21 straight in the 2010-11 season.
Winthrop also remains the sole undefeated team in Big South play and the ever-more likely team to host the Big South tournament in late February — which is important for its NCAA Tournament chances. The team is in position to notch the most conference wins in its history: In the 2006-07 season, the Eagles went undefeated in the Big South but only played 14 games, and in the 2004-05 season, the Eagles won 15 straight after losing their first conference contest.
Winthrop has eight conference games remaining in the regular season — not counting the end-of-year tournament.
The Eagles started fast against the Bulldogs, jumping out to a 14-4 lead, by running their offense through a noticeably-engaged, energetic DJ Burns. The redshirt freshman transfer forward finished Saturday’s game with six rebounds and 17 points in 20 minutes of play. He went 7-9 from the field and 3-5 from from the free throw line.
Burns’ play seemed to open up opportunities for the rest of his team. Like he has all season, when he got double-teamed in the post, he found open shooters spotting up on the 3-point line; the Eagles shot 13-23 (56.5 percent) from three on Saturday.
But he was far from the only story: Hunter Hale had 16 points, and Jamal King, in 13 minutes of play, scored 11.
And Claxton, of course, put together his most attention-grabbing statline yet: 19 points and five rebounds. (He also left five points on the free throw line, going 5-10.)
“It’s great to see him have a big, crooked number in the points column because he’s not called upon a lot to score for us,” Winthrop head coach Pat Kelsey said after the game. “I know one thing: A bunch of those 19 were Kyle Zunic drop-offs. He just had to have his hands ready and go attack the rim. And Chase will probably be the first to tell you that.”
Notable: More Chase Claxton
Claxton — who normally takes about half as many charges as he scores points (6.5 ppg.), on average — said that he’s never been one to celebrate.
While Burns is one to wave a towel on the sideline for him after a Claxton and-one, or smile as he runs back on defense after a Claxton dunk, Claxton himself shrugs and offers a green smile: “I mean, it’s just not natural. I go on to the next play.”
“On the court, we’re like polar opposites,” Claxton endearingly said of Burns. “He’s just always smiling, laughing, that stuff.”
But what about that one time, after a timeout late in the second half when you and Burns were talking? Weren’t you smiling then?
“I fed into it a little bit. I had to give him a little smile, so he would leave me alone.”
Said Burns of the same instance: “We’re getting there. He shows emotion. He shows way more emotion than when he first got here.
“I think that’s more of that he’s so locked in that, in a game, he’s not trying to have fun more so than he’s like, ‘Let’s get this done.’ And I like that about him.”
Claxton motioned to Russell Jones Jr. in his postgame interview, saying that he has been someone who has tried to convince Claxton to celebrate more. It turns out that the two go “way back,” in Jones’ words: They were first acquainted when they were 9 years old on opposing AAU teams.
“My AAU team used to beat his AAU team by like 40 every game,” Jones recalled with a big smile. “And then in high school, in 10th grade, that’s when we came together.”
The two would then be among the headliners on one of the best teams in the state. They were on Team South Carolina.
They didn’t play on the Division I Circuit — for reasons that are most simply summed up in the catch-all term “politics,” per Jones — but they were good, Jones said.
“We were like 15-1 against Circuit teams,” Jones said. “Like all the big shoe-name teams that you know? We beat them. ... We knew when we both got the offers that we’d be going to Winthrop. We didn’t tell anybody, but we knew we were coming here.
“It was just a fun time. That’s where we got our chemistry. Brothers for life.”
Quotable: ‘Losing their minds’
A final word from Claxton: I never tried to do them celebrations growing up. I’d literally get my dunk, and then just go down on the other side of the court. They want me to stare at people, scream or something. I’m not going to do that...
“I’m never going to flex. I’m too small for that.”
From Jones on his longtime teammate, Claxton: “We know he can guard. We know he can defend. But he got buckets tonight. That shows the work he put in. The ability that we have to find him. And just how his finishing ability is. Four dunks? It seems like he’s catching a body every game.”
Kelsey and the coaching staff knew that the Eagles would play in camouflage uniforms to honor veterans and members in the armed services on Saturday — but the players didn’t. Here’s what Kelsey said about it postgame: “We had them warming up in their whites. And then they came in at the 12-minute mark, and they’re all hanging up, and I was in the office next door, and they were just losing their minds.”
Kelsey’s father was a former U.S. Marine.
“It was a special day for me, and it was a special day for everybody.”
This story was originally published February 1, 2020 at 4:30 PM.
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