Winthrop smashes High Point on national TV

Winthrop dropped High Point 86-66 on Thursday night in a comprehensively dominant performance that made Eagles’ fans scratch their heads:

Where’s that been?

Talent isn’t the issue this season for Pat Kelsey’s club, something it showed a nationwide audience watching on ESPNU. The Eagles (11-6, 3-3 Big South) took the game over early in the second half with a series of ferocious dunks and blocked shots the likes of which Winthrop Coliseum has rarely seen, and which made the team’s three-game conference losing streak even more puzzling.

“I said on the radio I think High Point is without question an NCAA-caliber team, but from the looks of the team in white tonight, I think we had the look of one tonight, too,” said Kelsey. “The question is, can we sustain that? Can that be our consistent performance moving forward in conference play?”

Instead of dwelling on missed opportunities, Winthrop players preferred to look at the situation in a positive light.

“There’s always things that you would have wished that you did better in your life, but no retreat and only look forward and continue to be the best players and team you can be,” said Jimmy Gavin, describing the team’s mindset afterward.

Winthrop led 37-31 at the end of a first half marked by offensive spurts from both teams. Xavier Cooks scored the first seven points of the game, flushing a backdoor pass from Gavin for a slam on the game’s first play. High Point (12-5, 5-1) then ripped off nine straight to reclaim the lead, before Josh Davenport dunked over a pair of Panthers defenders, a play ESPN SportCenter’s Top 10 plays might have noticed, to tie the game at 13.

“We played with a lot of confidence tonight, a collective confidence,” said Gavin. “We were playing so hard and so together on the defensive end, that we played free on offense and it resulted in a lot of big plays.”

Duby Okeke showed how important he is to the Eagles’ defense, blocking six shots - four in the first half - and troubling Brown immensely. Okeke climbed the ladder to swat Anthony Lindauer’s shot nearly into the Winthrop bench, a play that might have challenged Davenport’s dunk for a spot in the Top 10.

But Okeke tired and when he left the game, John Brown – who had 17 of High Point’s 31 in the first half – scored seven straight points to whittle into what had swelled to an 11-point Winthrop lead. Keon Johnson’s floater with 18 seconds left sent the Eagles to their locker room with a six-point lead, 37-31.

Turning point

Winthrop grew its second half lead to 62-41 with 10 minutes, 56 seconds left, before High Point began to chip away. A Lorenzo Cugini three cut the lead to 64-50 and undoubtedly Eagles fans were thinking back to the evaporation of a very similar lead in Asheville over a week ago. The eery feeling was heightened when Scott Cherry’s team called for the same kind of press that helped Asheville’s comeback win.

“Did you get nervous?” Kelsey asked jokingly. “You didn’t want to say ‘here we go again.’ When our guys came in the huddle, I didn’t have to say anything. Those guys were saying, ‘attack,’ ‘play with poise,’ and it’s fun when you a coach a team like tonight. I had to say less.”

Gavin answered with a basket after the Eagles scythed through High Point’s press, before Okeke unleashed a holy, earth-quaking thunder dunk right over the Big South’s preseason player of the year, Brown, that sent the large crowd into hysterics. Even as it enthralled the crowd, Okeke’s dunk seemed to settle his team down and they staved off any High Point comeback that was brewing while also offering up a third possible top play of the night for ESPN.

Critical

Couple things: Okeke made an enormous impact on the defensive end. Sure, Brown scored 25 points, but he had to work for them, taking 23 shots. He also missed a number of close-range shots that Okeke’s out-stretched arms no doubt impacted. Zach Price struggled with foul trouble, but his length also made things tough for Brown.

Secondly: Winthrop kept its nerve in the second half. Plays meant for TV consumption – Okeke’s blocks and dunks, Cooks’ dunks, Davenport’s dunks, Gavin’s threes – kept the crowd behind the Eagles, and kept the Winthrop players’ chests puffed.

Third: Winthrop was able to overcome High Point’s massive advantage on the offensive glass. Twenty-two of High Point’s 38 came on the offensive end, but the Panthers struggled to turn those into points.

“That wasn’t my basketball team out there,” said Cherry.

Star contributions

▪  Gavin was outstanding for Winthrop, scoring a game-high 29 points. The fifth-year senior hit 6-of-11 3-pointers and exuded confidence that seemed to wear off on his teammates.

▪  Okeke was a crucial contributor; likewise for Johnson and Cooks. Johnson started slowly but finished with 21 points and six rebounds, while Cooks chipped in 17 and seven boards.

▪  Brown became just the ninth player in Big South Conference history to score 2,000 career points during the first half of Thursday’s contest. Much of Brown’s damage was done on the offensive glass; the first to most loose balls, he snared eight offensive boards, a big source of his 25 points.

On deck

No time for Winthrop to dwell on Thursday night’s result; the Eagles are back in action at the Coliseum on Saturday at 4 p.m., against Liberty. The Flames, under new coach Ritchie McKay – back at Liberty after coaching the school from 2008 to 2009 – lost 12 straight games at one point this season, but beat Coastal Carolina and Campbell last week in Big South play.

High Point hosts Coastal Carolina on Saturday.

This story was originally published January 14, 2016 at 9:15 PM with the headline "Winthrop smashes High Point on national TV."