Winthrop vs Radford: DJ Burns’ 18 points propels Eagles to bounce-back win

It didn’t always look easy, but the Winthrop men’s basketball team defeated Radford, 80-64, on the road on Thursday night. The win means that Winthrop is still the No. 1 team in the Big South Conference standings.

The Eagles (17-1, 14-1 Big South) came into Radford fresh off a devastating loss — one that ended nearly a year-long winning streak and likely foiled their chances at an at-large NCAA Tournament bid.

They exited Radford, though, with one of the most impressive wins of their season — an early sign that they put their loss against UNC Asheville behind them.

Winthrop was led by an assortment of characters:

▪ DJ Burns started the game 5-for-5 from the field and finished with 18 points in 18 minutes.

▪ Josh Corbin added 17 points, including five 3-pointers.

▪ Chandler Vaudrin, the nation’s leader in triple-doubles, notched 15 points, eight rebounds and seven assists.

▪ Chase Claxton scored 10 points, rounding out Winthrop’s double-figure scorers.

How did Winthrop stack up to its keys to the game?

Here’s how Winthrop’s “keys to the game” stacked up with the team’s actual performance.

1. Reset after UNC Asheville loss. On Jan. 29, the last time the team played, Winthrop watched in defeat as UNC Asheville stormed the Winthrop Coliseum floor. The road trip to Radford isn’t ideal for a season reset — considering Radford is a bitter Winthrop rival and is the second-best team in the Big South standings — but it’s critical to keeping Winthrop’s regular-season title hopes intact.

Postgame evaluation: This happened — in an equally unsurprising and impressive way. Winthrop had 11 days to prepare for this game, and responded to its 55-total-point performance against UNC Asheville with an 80-point outburst. And this was done without Adonis Arms, Winthrop’s second-leading scorer coming into Thursday’s contest.

2. Re-engage DJ Burns. Burns, Winthrop’s homegrown big man and one of the highest-ranked high school recruits to eventually play college ball in Rock Hill, was a nonfactor in Winthrop’s loss to UNC Asheville. He played 3 minutes in the game’s second half and scored four points. (The game before, in the Eagles’ four-point win against the Bulldogs, he didn’t score at all for the first time in his Winthrop career.) For Winthrop to beat Radford — and to have a realistic chance at making a splash in March — Burns will have to get going again. And that could be particularly tough against Radford’s frontcourt, which boasts the multifaceted and latest Big South player of the week, Dravon Mangum.

Postgame evaluation: As aforementioned, DJ Burns kick-started Winthrop’s offensive homecoming on Thursday. The 6-foot-9 lefty forward was engaged and, more importantly, bigger and better than his defenders. He scored the team’s first six points and finished 9-for-13 from the field with three rebounds and two assists.

3. Ensure Chandler Vaudrin wins the point guard battle. The 6-foot-7 Winthrop lefty point guard and NCAA triple-double leader will likely match up with Radford’s Fah’Mir Ali, the team’s 5-foot-10, do-it-all playmaker and leading scorer. The two guards clash in style, but they’re each their team’s proverbial engine. This position battle will be fun to watch.

Postgame evaluation: Vaudrin, who played 34 minutes, returned to form on Thursday night. He shot well-enough from the free throw line (6-for-9) and simply ran the team down the stretch to keep the game at arm’s length — even during Radford’s 10-1 run with just under four minutes to play. The senior guard effectively sealed the game when he converted an and-one layup with his off-hand with 1:58 to go to push the game’s margin to 12.

Winthrop-Radford betting odds

As of Wednesday afternoon, Winthrop was a 3.5-point favorite. The over/under was 141.5.

How to watch Friday’s game

Stream: ESPN3. (Go to ESPN.com/watch and provide your cable provider information to access the game.)

Listen: 94.3 FM/104.1 THE BRIDGE

When and where: 6 p.m. at Radford in Radford, Va.

Follow @alexzietlow05 on Twitter for instant updates.

This story was originally published February 11, 2021 at 5:00 AM.

Alex Zietlow

The Herald

Alex Zietlow writes about sports and the ways in which they intersect with life in York, Chester and Lancaster counties for The Herald, where he has been an editor and reporter since August 2019. Zietlow has won nine S.C. Press Association awards in his career, including First Place finishes in Feature Writing, Sports Enterprise Writing and Education Beat Reporting. He also received two Top-10 awards in the 2021 APSE writing contest and was nominated for the 2022 U.S. Basketball Writers Association’s Rising Star award for his coverage of the Winthrop men’s basketball team.