Eagles take flight: Winthrop men’s basketball runs over Piedmont in season opener

The Winthrop Eagles men’s basketball team kicked off the season with a bang Monday night, knocking off the Division III Piedmont Lions, 125-65. The Eagles saw seven players reach the double-digit scoring mark in the blowout, shooting an impressive 52.3% from the field as a team.

“We just wanted to be consistent in our effort for 40 minutes,” Eagles head coach Mark Prosser said. “I think we got that throughout the course of the game. We played hard, not always smart or intelligently ... you know we made some mistakes, but I thought we played hard.”

The effort was certainly there from first tip for Winthrop, as the team came out of the gates with high energy. It did take a little bit for the team to really start rolling though. The Eagles and Lions exchanged leads several times early on, as the two sides went through a feeling out process. Once Winthrop found its rhythm, however, the Eagles began to assert their dominance down the back stretch of the first half.

Junior Bryce Baker led the way for Winthrop in the opening half, putting up 16 points on 6 of 9 shooting from the field, and 4 of 6 shooting from 3-point range. As a team, the Eagles shot the ball at an efficient 54.5% clip in the first half, which gave them a commanding 16-point lead heading into the locker room.

Coming out of the break, the Eagles put the pedal to the floor and didn’t look back. Winthrop dominated the Lions at both ends of the floor, opening up a massive 30-point lead at the 10-minute mark. Defensively, Winthrop allowed just 32 points in the second half on 11-of-36 shooting from the field. It was a complete offensive effort with seven players reaching double digits.

Kelton Talford led Winthrop’s scorers with 17 points. The senior added nine rebounds. Sophomore Tai Hamilton finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Graduate transfer Ryan Jolly, who spent the past four years playing for Piedmont, finished with 15 points against some of his former teammates.

“Yeah, it was bittersweet,” Jolly said. “I told Coach (Greg) Neeley on the other end ... of course I’m glad to see you, but once that whistle blows I’m an Eagle, and I want to win. But it was really good seeing the guys. ... I got great love for them.”

Jolly said he was attracted to Winthrop, in part, because of the program’s past success.

“The main reason was all the banners up here,” Jolly said gesturing to the coliseum’s ceiling. “That’s just something I really wanted to be a part of. A historic program like Winthrop is something that any player would want to be a part of.”

When asked about his season expectations, Prosser also referenced the Eagles’ rich history.

“Our expectations never change,” Prosser said. “You look around and turn that camera up there and see all those banners hanging, we expect to compete for a championship, and we expect to win a championship.”

Winthrop returns to action at noon on Saturday, hosting Little Rock.

This story was originally published November 4, 2024 at 10:07 PM.