Winthrop overcomes early struggles to defeat Big South foe Longwood in ESPN spotlight
It wasn’t always easy to watch — one team shot 33% from the field and the other notched its lowest point total of the season — but it was enough to stave off disaster.
The Winthrop men’s basketball team (12-0, 9-0 Big South) continued its undefeated and unprecedented season with a win over Big South foe Longwood, 72-61, on Thursday night, overcoming a shooting performance that seemed a lot worse than its 40% total and a first-half sluggishness that helped an inferior Longwood team overstay its welcome at the Coliseum in Rock Hill.
Sure, this wasn’t necessarily the game Winthrop — normally a high-scoring, fast-paced squad fueled by its 11-man rotation — wanted to deliver while playing in the ESPN spotlight and in front of fans (limited to family of players and coaches) for the first time this season: The team from Rock Hill scored 32 points in the first half (tied for a season-low) and 72 for the game (a season low). It also only notched 10 assists as a team and was led in points by Micheal Anumba, who scored 14 points on only 3-for-3 shooting.
And sure, the Eagles let the Lancers get the game within two before Anumba scored seven of the team’s next nine points to push the lead back to 10 with about seven minutes left.
But perhaps written in the subtext of the game’s box score was the fact that the Eagles won anyway — exiting with an 11-point win despite arguably its worst performance of the season.
“We always try to stay calm,” Anumba told reporters postgame when asked about the game getting to a one-possession fight in the second half. “And we know that we’re trained for this moment, so even if the game is close, no matter how much time is left and what the score is, we know that we’re trained for this moment. So no one was worried, everyone was calm.”
Winthrop coach Pat Kelsey credited his team’s defense for Thursday’s win.
“I thought Mike Anumba and Chase Claxton were sensational defensively,” Kelsey told reporters postgame. “Juan Munoz is a very, very good player, I think one of the better lead guards in our conference. It’s a handful trying to guard all the pick and rolls that he uses. He changes speed so well. He distributes and makes people around him better, and he’s a guy we really circled on the scouting report, and Chase and Mike really accepted that challenge.”
Winthrop was also led by Adonis Arms, who scored 10 points and was the only player to hit two threes for the Eagles (who shot 4-for-20 from beyond the arc); Chandler Vaudrin, who notched 13 points, eight rebounds and five assists; and DJ Burns, who had 10 points despite being sidelined for much of the second half with three personal fouls.
Winthrop plays Longwood again on Friday at 6 p.m. in Rock Hill.
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