Winthrop men unable to keep up with Campbell

Winthrop men’s basketball ended 2015 with a loss, a 90-83 home defeat to Campbell on Thursday at Winthrop Coliseum.

The Eagles will point to double-digit shots from close range that rimmed out, bobbled out, bounced out – pick your verb but they didn’t go in. Winthrop (9-4, 2-1 Big South) also consistently lost out on 50-50 loose balls, and every time the home side did get a modicum of momentum rolling, the visiting Camels (8-5, 2-1) snuffed it out with a big shot. Those almost always came from the backcourt trio of Chris Clemons, Kyre Hamer and Troy Harper, who combined to score 67 of Campbell’s 90.

“They did a good job of answering,” said Winthrop coach Pat Kelsey. “Whenever we were kind of building up some momentum and getting a couple of scores, cutting into the lead, they hit those sort of defining, answer-type shots. All three of those guys did that.”

Free throws by Clemons and a strong drive by Harper gave Campbell its biggest lead of the contest at 65-49 with about 10 minutes to play. That spurred Winthrop in the tail and the Eagles ripped off an 11-3 run to close the lead to 68-60. When Hamer scored, the Camels’ lead was back up to 13 before Winthrop again rattled off a couple of buckets, with Keon Johnson’s corner 3-pointer cutting it to 75-68 with less than 5 minutes left.

Maybe this was it for Winthrop?

But Harper’s 3-pointer at the other end stretched the lead back out, and Campbell answered one final Winthrop challenge. Johnson, who scored 27 of his game-high 32 points in the second half, finished acrobatically at the rim to cut the Camels’ advantage to six, at 84-78 with 2 minutes, 1 second to play, but after Rod Perkins missed a corner three, Clemons hit a pair of free throws and Hamer dropped in a close-range bucket with the shot clock winding down to stretch the lead back to 10. He then hit a pair of free throws late to put the New Year’s Eve road win on ice.

“Campbell was the better team tonight,” said Kelsey. “They executed their stuff, hit big shots in big moments.”

Turning point

There were a couple of options for the game’s turning point, but each one shared a common theme: Campbell hitting a big shot to quell a Winthrop run. The last of those came from Hamer, who capped a 28-second possession by squirming loose on the baseline to flip a shot up and in with about 50 seconds left for an 88-78 lead.

“Him making it was, ‘okay, we can breathe,’” said Campbell coach Kevin McGeehan. “Had he missed it we would have had to go down and guard and stay on top of the high-wire act, hanging on for dear life.”

Perkins’ missed three about a minute earlier also hurt.

“That’s something we’ve got to capitalize on,” he said afterward.

Critical

McGeehan’s team popped the ball around on offense with nine, 10, 11 passes on each possession leading to a number of good looks. Those didn’t dry up when Harper ran into foul trouble, and then Clemons late in the game. Whenever one of the three guards took a seat, one of the other ones took the reins.

“One of the things about the way that we play, there is very much interchangeability between our guys,” said McGeehan. “Having Kyre as a third guard playing forward really helps us because he was our point guard last year before he got hurt. Having that third guy really helps.”

Winthrop was hurt by the prolonged absence in the second half of standout sophomore Xavier Cooks. The 6-foot-8 Aussie picked up a second foul and then a technical as he left the court and headed to the bench. The same turn of events happened in a game earlier this season at USC Upstate, and Cooks stayed on the bench for the rest of the game Thursday. It was a clear message.

“Don’t get any more technicals. That’s the message,” Kelsey said. “It’s really, really simple. We’re gonna be about certain things; we’re gonna conduct ourselves with class, we’re gonna be gentlemen at all times, win or lose, period. We’re going to conduct ourselves with class all the time, and unfortunately, to this point, that lesson hasn’t been learned.”

Star contributions

Clemons only had four points at halftime but his mercury rose quickly in the second half. The freshman finished with 30 points, 10 coming from the foul line. Johnson couldn’t find a rhythm in the first half but lit up the second, making 9-of-15 shots from the field en route to tying his season-high of 32 points.

“I enjoyed watching it both ways,” Hamer said, referring to Clemons and Johnson’s back and forth scoring exchanges in the second half. “We played great defense, he was just making really good, hard shots. So did Chris.”

Perkins had his best game for Winthrop, recording a number of defensive deflections, two steals, and also a career-high 18 points.

Overheard

“We just know that we didn’t play hard all 40 minutes of the game,” said Perkins, “didn’t get down in a stance and play hard for 30 seconds of a shot clock.”

On deck

Quick turnaround for both teams; Campbell hosts Presbyterian, while Winthrop heads to Coastal Carolina. The visit to Conway will be the Eagles’ last as the Chanticleers’ conference rival. Coastal leaves the Big South after this season to join the Sun Belt Conference.

“We’ve got to go back to the drawing board and just really focus on defense,” said Perkins.

This story was originally published December 31, 2015 at 4:17 PM with the headline "Winthrop men unable to keep up with Campbell."