Winthrop overcomes 3-point shooting woes, uses late surge to keep streak alive
Winthrop head coach Pat Kelsey could feel a timeout coming.
He was alert — his eyebrows were raised as he surveyed his team’s defense — but he was also quiet. He’d buttoned up his suit jacket. Micheal Anumba had just hit a corner 3-pointer with 4:14 left to give the Eagles their first lead in four minutes and only their second lead of the second half.
And once the timeout came, Kelsey walked out onto the court with a confidence as if he knew his team would win.
Winthrop (17-7, 11-0 Big South) didn’t relinquish the lead Anumba gave it, ultimately defeating Campbell, 62-53, in Winthrop Coliseum on Thursday night after trailing for much of the second half. It was the first time since Winthrop’s matchup with Gardner-Webb that the Eagles had been challenged at home since going on its winning streak that extended to 13 games on Thursday night.
Much about this particular win looked different than Winthrop’s previous 12. The Eagles went 5-21 from three. Freshman forward Chase Claxton led the team in scoring with 12 points, only the second time he’s done that this season. The Eagles had a scoring margin of +17.3 in its previous 12 games and had led by 20 or more in four straight games — and that didn’t happen on Thursday night.
Despite the team’s bad shooting, Winthrop prevailed — proving that the Eagles can win in more ways than one.
The Eagles held the lead for all but the last 22 seconds in the first half. They entered the break down two, and the Camels’ lead ballooned to eight before a furious Winthrop run in the game’s last eight minutes shifted the game’s tides.
Winthrop never trailed after Anumba’s three from the corner — which is his “favorite spot,” he disclosed postgame — and ended the game on a 12-6 run.
This game contrasted with Winthrop’s matchup with Campbell in Buies Creek in early January, Kelsey said postgame.
“It felt like we were in command of the game the entire time,” Kelsey said. “We had a comfortable lead. This one was back and forth. It was a great college game.”
The Eagles hit the road and play Longwood on Saturday at 3 p.m.
Notable and quotable: Winning ugly
- Josh Ferguson eclipsed the 1,000-point mark early in the second half off a three in the left corner. He scored 10 points and was one of four players who notched double-digit point totals. In the middle of his postgame interview, Coach Kelsey interrupted one of Ferguson’s answers and told him to give his father a hug, who flew in to Rock Hill from Miami to see his son play.
- DJ Burns set the record for most field goals made in a season by a freshman on Thursday night. He entered the game with 128 field goals and hit five to surpass LaShawn Coulter, the previous record holder, who’d made 131 as a freshman. The redshirt transfer scored 11 points in 17 minutes.
- Despite these two milestones, the game wasn’t pretty: Campbell shot 40 percent for the game, sure, but the team also went 6-22 from three and turned the ball over 16 times. Neither team was successful at drawing charges. And from the free throw line? Winthrop held the advantage — at 65.2 percent against Campbell’s 55.6 percent.
That said, as Kelsey pointed out postgame, Campbell deliberately fouled Chandler Vaudrin — who’s shooting just over 48 percent from the line for the year — with a minute and change left in the game: “It was a hack-a-shack,” Kelsey said. “Chan’s a competitor, now — he knew it. And he just gritted his teeth, stepped up there, knocked them down. And, you know, message sent.”
- Anumba’s three, with just over four minutes left in the game from the right corner ultimately propelled the Eagles past the Camels. He was prompted about that particular shot postgame.
“I kind of knew the ball was coming to my hands because of Chandler Vaudrin — he’s an unbelievable passer,” Anumba said. “As soon as my man left me, I just knew the ball was coming to me somehow. Somehow it was going to get to me. And as soon as it got to me, I just let it fly. That’s my favorite spot... The place went crazy, and then when the timeout came, I let the emotion take over me.”
This story was originally published February 6, 2020 at 9:42 PM with the headline "Winthrop overcomes 3-point shooting woes, uses late surge to keep streak alive."
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