Winthrop men keep humming along, beat Radford for seventh straight win

Former Winthrop star Torrell Martin was in attendance at the Eagles’ matchup Saturday with Radford, one of seven new inductees into the Winthrop Hall of Fame Martin spoke to the team before the game and then the current Eagles gave the former drama major quite a performance, defeating the Highlanders 87-77 at the Winthrop Coliseum.

“Those teams put Winthrop on the map nationally, so when we take the floor we owe it to them to play our hardest,” senior Jimmy Gavin said of Martin and the other “banner-hangers” as head coach Pat Kelsey calls them.

Martin played on the team in 2007 that defeated Notre Dame in the NCAA tournament.

“Our guys are well aware of the tradition here and what they did to make that jersey special and they try to uphold it,” Kelsey said.

Gavin poured in 23 points in the first half and finished with 29 to lead the Eagles (16-6, 8-3) to their seventh straight win.

“Scoring is finishing the play, but there’s so much going on it’s just that I’m the beneficiary,” Gavin said

It was an offensive explosion in the first half as it looked like the first team to 100 would win. Winthrop led 48-42 at the half, hitting 9-of-16 three-pointers. Radford wasn’tfar behind at 6-of-11.

“In the first half I thought it was going to end 148 to 146,” Kelsey said. “As a fan, I’m sure that was entertaining to watch.”

Both teams shot less successfully from long distance in the second half.

The Highlanders were 1-for-7 and the Eagles 1-for-4. At one point, Radford was shooting 61 percent from the field and losing. They ended up at 49.2 percent for the game after cooling off late, and Winthrop, in a strange coincidence, shot50 percent for the second consecutive game.

The Highlanders' only leads were 2-0 and 4-2, but they did pull even at 56 with 12:50 to play. A two-handed slam from Duby Okeke at the five-minute mark put the Eagles up 75-66 and then freshman Bjorn Broman hit a running floater after splitting two defenders and got fouled with 3:44 remaining His three-point play made it 78-66 and put the game on ice. Broman finished with 14 points.

“It’s been an up-and-down freshman season for me, but I just try to learn as much as I can from Jimmy and Keon because they’re great players,” Broman said. “It felt good tonight to make some shots.”

TURNING POINT

With the score tied at 58, Josh Davenport made a driving layup and a free throw, and Keon Johnson hit his second three of the day to make it 64-58. With 7:09 to play Xavier Cooks scored to make it 70-62 and the Eagles from there.

CRITICAL

Davenport had eight big points and seven rebounds as Cooks got two fouls early in the game and eventually fouled out. Winthrop shot 20-for-29 from the free throw line in the second half while Radford hit only 2-of-5. The Eagles attempted 40 free throws compared to11 for the Highlanders.

INDIVIDUAL PERFORMERS

Gavin had 29 on 9-of-14 shooting from the field, Broman had 14, and Johnson scored 16. Brandon Holcomb led Radford with 18 strong points in the paint.

OVERHEARD

“I haven’t coached on many teams that have more than one guy that can give you thirty,” Kelsey said. “Scoring thirty in a college game is hard.”

“The crowd today was unbelievable, phenomenal,” Kelsey said. “And the recruits that are here today saw a big-time atmosphere.”

ON DECK

Winthrop travels to Liberty Tuesday night.

BOX SCORE WINTHROP 87, RADFORD 77

This story was originally published January 30, 2016 at 9:42 PM with the headline "Winthrop men keep humming along, beat Radford for seventh straight win."