Johnson’s buzzer beater sees Winthrop past Radford

Keon Johnson scored a game-high 32 points including a buzzer beating jumper to lead Winthrop to an 86-84 victory at Radford, Saturday afternoon at the Dedmon Center.

With the victory the Eagles have won two straight and improve to 18-7 overall and 10-4 in the Big South. The loss drops Radford to 14-12 overall and 7-7 in the league. The Eagles winners of 10 games in the last 11 - will be back in action on Thursday, Feb. 18 when they host Coastal Carolina at 7 p.m.

Winthrop trailed the Highlanders by as much as nine points in the second half with 16:48 on the clock and were down 74-67 with seven and a half to play after YaYa Anderson drained a three as Holcomb kicked the ball out to Anderson for the open look from the wing.

Keon Johnson scored the next six points to pull the Eagles within a point at 74-73 with a little less than six and a half to play. Xavier Cooks then scored on an open layup as Bjorn Broman found him cutting to the basket for a 75-74 Winthrop lead. The lead changed hands seven more times before Broman’s three in the corner with 1 minute, 40 seconds left put the Eagles up 84-82. Cameron Jones tied the game at 84-84 with 54 seconds left as he knocked down a jumper at the free throw line.

Johnson’s decisive intervention came shortly thereafter.

Turning point

The game was tied 84 all with 19.4 seconds remaining as the Highlanders went to Brandon Holcomb in the paint out of a timeout. Holcomb made a move to the middle and his shot fell short and into the hands of Joshua Davenport, who quickly passed to Johnson. Johnson flew up the court, passing the midway point with 3.9 seconds left and getting inside the arc where he let a 15-foot jumper go in front of the Winthrop bench with 1.7 ticks on the clock. The ball swished through the net as time expired.

Critical

In a game that had 20 leads changes and eight ties the Eagles came out on top as they finished the game shooting 60 percent from the floor (63 percent in the second half) and were 17-for-21 at the line. Radford, which scored 27 points off of 18 Winthrop turnovers, shot 55 percent from the floor and was 13-for-17 at the line.

Star contributors

Johnson led all scorers as one of four Winthrop players in double-figures. Zach Price finished with 14 points, while Jimmy Gavin and Cooks chipped in with 13 each. Gavin finished with a team-high five assists while Cooks contributed seven rebounds, three assists and two blocks.

With his 32-point performance, Johnson moved into 11th place on Winthrop’s all-time scoring list as he passed Tyrone Walker and Michael Jenkins and is now 30 points away from 10th. It was Johnson’s fifth 30-point game of the season.

Radford was led by Jones, who finished with 21 points on 10-for-16 shooting while Rashun Davis added 17 points and dished out nine assists. Anderson finished with 15 points on 5-for-9 shooting.

On deck

Winthrop has four games remaining in the regular season, including a huge pair next week. The Eagles host Coastal Carolina on Thursday - the two teams’ last regular season meeting before the Chanticleers depart the Big South for the Sun Belt Conference next season - before another game in Rock Hill next Saturday against UNC Asheville.

This story was originally published February 13, 2016 at 4:13 PM with the headline "Johnson’s buzzer beater sees Winthrop past Radford."