Cory Hightower comes up big against his old team to give Winthrop key Big South win
Early in the first half, Cory Hightower held his follow through from the top of the key, watched the ball go in and shushed the crowd.
Rarely do you see that — a player on his home court motioning for his doubters to be quiet. But this wasn’t any other home game for Hightower, Winthrop’s redshirt junior big man: It was a chance at redemption against his old team.
And redemption came.
Hightower later said he was shushing himself — making sure he didn’t talk too much on his way back down the court after hitting a big shot.
But that doesn’t change his impact on Saturday’s contest: Hightower finished with 17 points in Winthrop’s 65-61 win over Presbyterian College on Saturday afternoon in the Coliseum in Rock Hill. He shot 7-for-11 from the field in a team-high 31 minutes played, and he was one of only three Winthrop players to hit a 3.
“It felt really good to win,” Hightower told reporters postgame. “You know, second game back from COVID. I’ve been locked up for a week, so it’s good to be back out here. Especially against PC, you know, because I transferred from there.”
This was only the second time Hightower had faced the Blue Hose since he transferred from there to Western Carolina in 2020. Hightower redshirted a year for the Catamounts and then came to Winthrop this past offseason.
His first time playing opposite to PC? He finished with four points in 25 minutes earlier this year. (Winthrop won that game 60-58, in large part thanks to Pat Good’s 31 points.)
But Saturday afternoon was a different, better display for Hightower.
“Honestly, from my fans, the coaches and my teammates (is where) my confidence comes from,” Hightower said. “I’m walking the ball out, and I’m just hearing, ‘C’mon Cory, c’mon Cory.’ And I have teammates saying, ‘Cory, you’re good.’ And then my coaches give me the freedom to do what I want, so that’s just a huge boost throughout the game.”
The game started slowly: The Eagles maintained a 28-24 lead at halftime despite going only 10-of-23 from the field. (Hightower led all scores with 12 points at the half. He was 5-of-8; the rest of the team was 5-of-15.)
And while it stayed tight — neither team had a lead larger than five points in the second half — the basketball got appreciably more entertaining down the stretch.
With six minutes left, redshirt junior big man DJ Burns scored seven straight points to give the Eagles a 53-50 lead. PC responded with a few big shots of its own, a few of them from sophomore guard Rayshon Harrison, who finished with 19 points.
But the game was ultimately decided in the final two minutes: Hightower drove right and finished a contested layup with 1:11 left to make the game 61-58. A pair of Mike Anumba free throws pushed the game to 63-58, and then a Presbyterian College Harrison 3 made it 63-61.
And then, after an important press break and two big free throws from sophomore Sin’Cere McMahon to give the Eagles a 65-61 lead, that was practically it.
With the win, the Eagles won their fourth straight and maintained their flawless record at home (11-0). They also held their positioning atop the south division of the Big South.
Here’s what else you need to know.
Winthrop shooting woes continue
For a second-straight game, Winthrop hit fewer than four 3s.
On Wednesday, the Eagles hit two; on Saturday, they hit three.
Winthrop head coach Mark Prosser told reporters postgame that while the shooting isn’t ideal, he is encouraged by winning despite it all.
“Good shooters — and we have a bunch of them, who live in the gym and work at it — when they don’t make some, I think it just means that the floodgates are going to open pretty soon,” Prosser said. “Hopefully it’s Wednesday, and it continues on. But no, I’m not concerned at all. We’ll be fine.”
Said Hightower: “I feel like we’re getting good shots, they’re just not falling. We just gotta get through this lapse, or whatever you want to say. And I think we’ll be good.”
DJ Burns saves Winthrop basketball late
For as good as Hightower was on Saturday afternoon, the Eagles needed their other premier big man to seal the deal.
And they got him.
Burns finished with 17 points on 8-of-12 shooting in 23 minutes. The previously mentioned seven-point run for the Rock Hill native allowed Winthrop to take control of a game that was hard to harness for anyone.
Winthrop has relied on its interior scoring to date: Talford was Winthrop’s key in Wednesday’s win over Radford. And Burns was Saturday.
And with Winthrop’s poor shooting from 3 — its two least prolific 3-point shooting outputs of the season have come in its last two games — Burns and Hightower and Talford should expect their numbers to be called again.
Worth noting, too: Burns, a redshirt junior, was honored pregame for notching his 1,000th career point earlier this year.
Other notes
▪ Jamal King has left the Winthrop basketball team, Prosser confirmed to reporters postgame. He announced his departure on Thursday. Prosser said King is a “great kid” and “still a part of our family,” but that he’s looking forward to “moving forward with the kids we have in our locker room.” With the news, King finished his career midway through his junior season. He was averaging 2.3 points and 1.7 rebounds in 2021-22.
▪ The Winthrop Coliseum saw one of its highest attendance numbers of the season: 2,006. This is only the second time the Coliseum has seen more than 2,000 fans this year. (The most was against North Carolina A&T on Feb. 3, with 2,192.)
▪ Winthrop is now shooting 68.4% from the free-throw line, a baffling statistic all year considering how well the Eagles shoot from the field. But they went 16-of-21 (76.2%) from the line on Saturday.
▪ Zeb Graham of Presbyterian College is a former Nation Ford High School standout. Fort Mill’s own played a lot on Saturday: He finished with an assist, a rebound and a steal in 11 minutes.
This story was originally published February 12, 2022 at 6:54 PM.
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