The streak is over. After 14 straight wins, Winthrop comeback not enough against Radford.
Freshman Russell Jones Jr. looked at the scoreboard as he retreated back on defense with just over 16 minutes left, his team uncharacteristically down by 21 points.
He looked again a few minutes later, while on the bench, seated between his Winthrop teammates DJ Burns and Josh Ferguson. They were looking at the scoreboard, too.
Every Eagle looked. They had to. They started as looks of desperation. And they ultimately ended that way as time expired with their 14-game win streak no longer intact as Winthrop on Monday lost 81-77 to Radford, its Big South foe.
Over the course of a 20-3 second-half run that shrunk Winthrop’s deficit that had ballooned to as much as 27, the Eagles players looked and parsed out the time on the scoreboard in their heads. With every missed Radford free throw, with every Winthrop second-half three and charge call that went its way — the Winthrop Coliseum in Rock Hill, S.C., grew louder.
And a comeback felt tangible.
“Those last 14 minutes — I mean, you’re down 27 and you get the chance to tie the game at the end, that’s hard to do,” Winthrop head coach Pat Kelsey told reporters after the game. “Our guys responded the right way.”
Tensions high, tempers flare
Less than three minutes into the game, Kelsey and Radford coach Mike Jones each received technical fouls after an altercation between the two of them at the scorers’ table. Jones appeared to be approaching the Winthrop sideline when he was stopped by the referees. Kelsey and Jones then shared some words before assistant coaches on both benches intervened.
Both coaches were brief when asked about the altercation postgame.
Said Jones: “Our players were jawing before the game. Our players were jawing during the game. Then, that spilled over to us. ... I didn’t say anything to him to spark it. I think just emotions flowing over with the big game.”
Said Kelsey: “I don’t really have anything to say.”
Tempers continued to flare through the next four minutes. Winthrop’s DJ Burns and Radford’s Travis Field Jr. each picked up technical fouls while running back on defense after an Eagle basket.
The game remained physical. There were 48 foul calls between the two teams — many of them charging fouls — and every rebound was a scrum. And for a long stretch on Monday night, as Kelsey admitted postgame, Radford was the tougher team.
But soon, Winthrop started hitting from the outside. The Eagles started playing a desperate brand of full court defense and forced turnovers. Radford’s Carlik Jones — who finished with 20 points and was the crowd’s most powerful sedative — was sidelined with foul trouble for a substantial part of the game.
Then Winthrop’s run began. Even though the Eagles had a few empty offensive trips, missed key free throws and gave up a few open looks on the defensive end (a few were Jones’ pull-up jump shots) — the team had a chance at the end.
With 25 seconds remaining, Winthrop’s Jones drove by his defender and lofted a contested layup that would have tied the game at 79 had it gone in.
“We had a timeout left,” Kelsey recalled. “I think I would do the exact same thing over again. We call a timeout, maybe they change defenses, but we had them where we wanted them. We had them on their heals. Played and attacked and got right to the front of the rim and the kid made a heck of a defensive play and deflected the ball.
“And that was all she wrote.”
Radford collected Jones’ rebound, hit two free throws and walked off the court victorious.
The Highlanders (15-9, 10-2 Big South) are now 1.5 games behind Winthrop (19-7, 12-1 Big South) in the conference. The Eagles are still in first place.
Notable: DJ Burns
With just over 10 minutes remaining in the first half, Burns left the game and didn’t return. The starting forward — who had a big game against Radford earlier this year — finished Monday’s matchup with two points, two rebounds and two assists in seven minutes played.
When Kelsey was asked why Burns didn’t play in the second half, Kelsey said it was “because I decided not to play him.”
Burns left the game with Radford leading, 21-18. He then watched his team’s deficit grow from the sideline — the Eagles evidencing how reliant they are on perimeter offense without their interior presence in the game, rarely getting paint touches on possessions toward the end of the first half.
He also watched the deficit shrink when shots were going in, remaining positive and supporting his teammates throughout the game.
In all, the absence of Burns affects this Winthrop team — particularly against an aggressive, active team like Radford — similar to how you’d expect it to.
The Eagles, without Burns, didn’t have an important offensive dimension, but they still had firepower in spades — even if it took them nearly 15 minutes of game action to realize it.
Quotable: Game implications
Kelsey on preparing for Thursday, when the Eagles play Gardner-Webb on the road: “We got to turn the page quickly in this crazy stretch when you’re playing five times in 10 days. You know, you got to be able to have that same ‘next play,’ ‘next thing,’ ‘next day,’ ‘next game’ mentality — and get ready for a Gardner-Webb team that’s playing phenomenal.”
Radford coach Jones on playing Winthrop: “It’s like getting a root canal. Five times. In one day. ... They deserve a lot of credit for the spirit that they had down the stretch.”
This story was originally published February 10, 2020 at 11:43 PM.
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