Winthrop makes it three wins in six days

Winthrop men’s basketball won its third game of the week Saturday, downing Liberty 74-58.

It was Frozen Day at the Coliseum in Rock Hill, a nod to the Disney movie of great popularity, as well as a marketing reference to cooling off Liberty, nicknamed the Flames. Dozens of little princesses made their way down to center court to sing the movie’s hit song “Let It Go” at halftime. It might as well have been the theme song for Winthrop when the Eagles were mired in a three-game losing streak this time last week.

“We never got down on ourselves,” said junior Josh Davenport, who had nine points and seven rebounds in Saturday’s win. “We always came to practice prepared, ready to go.”

“Basketball’s like a game of runs,” sophomore Xavier Cooks chimed in. “In the game you’re gonna go on a run, and just like that you lose a couple of games, win a couple of games. It’s not a steady ship; you’re gonna have adversity, you just have to fight through it.”

Both teams played Thursday night and Liberty prefers to slow the game down, so a more lethargic Saturday game was a safe prediction. It turned out to be Winthrop’s slowest of the year with just 66 possessions.

Winthrop’s first six times down the floor Saturday produced two missed shots and four turnovers, but the Eagles (12-6, 4-3 Big South) quickly got into gear with an 11-0 run.

“The concern is they put you in the grinder and make you guard deep into the shot clock and then you go down and shoot a fast one and then you’re right back playing defense again,” said Winthrop coach Pat Kelsey. “I felt early on we were shooting the first okay shot, then I think we started doing a better job taking great shots, whether they were early in the shot clock or late in the shot clock.”

Jimmy Gavin buried a 3 at the end of the shot clock while drawing a foul; his free throw made it 11-5 Winthrop. Liberty (5-15, 2-5) got back into the contest, A.C. Reid’s 3 tying the score at 20 with 5 minutes, 33 seconds left in the first half, but the home team rattled off an 11-2 run to close the half with a 31-22 lead.

“The way we finished the half, that was disappointing,” said Liberty coach Ritchie McKay, who is in his second stint as the Flames’ head coach after leading the team in 2008 and 2009. “I thought defeat occurred for us at the 18-minute mark.”

Turning point

McKay felt Winthrop’s spurt late in the first half was the difference. Liberty never really seemed to threaten the hosts in the second half, but they did cut the Eagles’ lead to 10 points (47-37) with 7 minutes, 30 seconds left in the game after a second consecutive 3 by John Dawson.

Winthrop mustered up a 10-2 run to put the game away. Gavin hit a 3, before Keon Johnson blew past two defenders to score while being fouled. Johnson switched to his left hand to get off the shot, then knocked down the ensuing free throw. The speedy guard then hit a floater in the painted area before Cooks attacked the rim for another deuce to cap the run in a second half in which Winthrop shot 69 percent from the floor.

Critical

Liberty runs the same defense as Winthrop, the pack-line. McKay came to Liberty from Virginia where he was an assistant to Tony Bennett, whose father invented the pack-line defense. Besides Winthrop, Liberty is the only team to use the defense.

“It looked like practice,” said Cooks.

After the four turnovers in the first couple minutes, the Eagles only gave the ball away five more times in the contest’s remaining 35 minutes.

Winthrop’s safety with the ball was important in a game that was no classic offensively. But when combined with 52 percent shooting and 21-9 free throw attempt advantage, it was good enough for a 13th straight win over the Flames in Rock Hill, and a ninth straight overall against the visitors.

Star contributions

Cooks was excellent in an otherwise offensively sluggish first half for both sides. He scored 13 of his 22 points in the first 20 minutes, hitting a pair of 3’s and picking specifically on Liberty freshman Ezra Talbert on several occasions, backing him down into the paint before scoring. The Australian added six boards and two blocked shots to an all-around effective performance.

“He’s a great player,” said McKay. “They got a great one from Aussie Land. He can score in a variety of ways.”

Gavin had another productive offensive outing, scoring 19 points with the help of seven free throws. He was aggressive driving the ball and forcing fouls on Liberty defenders. Gavin has scored at least 17 points in his lat five games.

Five late points for Johnson lengthened his double-digit scoring streak to 22 games, the longest current run in the Big South. He finished with 12.

Overheard

“Winthrop is as good as any team in this league and I think they’re better than anyone in the league right now,” said McKay. “They played terrifically well against High Point and I thought in the non-conference they played Power-5 teams, the difficult teams on their schedule well. I knew coming in this would take a great effort because our margin for error was small.”

“I feel like our defense is becoming more consistent,” said Kelsey. “The High Point game and this game, our guys were very much locked in to the scouting report and they know that we have an ability to really, really score the ball and if we can get our defense to come along, the sky could be the limit for this team.”

On deck

Another pivotal Big South contest next Wednesday for Winthrop; the Eagles make the short drive to Gardner-Webb to face the Runnin’ Bulldogs, which lost to UNC Asheville Saturday. A win Wednesday would pull the Eagles level with Gardner-Webb in the Big South standings.

Box score

This story was originally published January 16, 2016 at 6:52 PM with the headline "Winthrop makes it three wins in six days."