Winthrop knocks out rival Coastal Carolina one last time

Winthrop bid a likely adieu to the Coastal Carolina rivalry Thursday night with a 79-67 win over the Chanticleers at the Coliseum.

Unlike the visitors from the beach, Winthrop (19-7, 11-4 Big South) overcame a poor shooting first half to pour on the offense in the second. Xavier Cooks led all scorers with 26 points and the Eagles out-rebounded the Chanticleers – for years the rebounding paradigm in the Big South – to keep pace at the top of the league standings with Asheville.

One stat - Winthrop’s win in the rebounding column - stood out as perhaps a signal that the Eagles have advanced from merely a flashy, offensively-capable team to a more complete threat.

“To out-rebound a team like Coastal is tough because they’re rugged,” said Winthrop coach Pat Kelsey, whose team had a 44-41 advantage on the glass. “And I say that in the most complimentary and affectionate way.”

Winthrop led by one at the end of a first half that won’t end up in any basketball how-to manuals. The teams combined to shoot 3-for-23 from beyond the arc, but 24 total fouls gave each side plenty of opportunities to score from the foul line. Winthrop was a perfect 10-for-10, crucial considering they only made 10 field goals.

The Eagles’ biggest lead of the half came courtesy of a 7-0 run in the last five minutes. Elijah Wilson’s pull-up jumper gave Coastal a 24-23 lead, but Jimmy Gavin gave Winthrop its easiest bucket of the first half by penetrating the Chanticleers defense and dumping off to Duby Okeke, who patiently head-faked before slamming home. Keon Johnson then spied Cooks in the left corner for a 3, before Gavin scored in transition to force a Coastal timeout with 3 minutes, 3 seconds left in the half, and a 30-24 Eagles lead.

Consistent with a first half that saw nine ties and six lead changes, the visitors scored eight of the last 10, Lancaster’s Ron Trapps drilling a 3 with five seconds left to make it a one-point game at the break, 32-31.

Headed into the second half it felt like the team that could get some shots to fall would – with a little bit of defense – run away, and that happened for the home team. A big second half run knocked out the visitors, who were hampered severely by foul trouble to point guard Shivaughn Wiggins and forward Badou Diagne.

Cooks’ 3-pointer with a minute left – his sixth, a single-game career-high – put a resounding exclamation on the win, his grin matched by thousands wearing black “CRUSH COASTAL” shirts in the crowd.

“You saw, you saw what it means,” Kelsey said, pointing toward the empty arena.

The win gave the Eagles a warm and cozy feeling in what may be the last game between the two longtime rivals, but also gave Winthrop an 11th win in 12 games and an 11th Big South win.

Turning point

A 13-0 run late in the second half buried Coastal. Jaylen Shaw scored six straight points for the visitors, including a vicious dunk in transition, to cut Winthrop’s lead to 57-53. But Bjorn Broman drained a 3 produced from rapid ball movement, Gavin kicked out to Cooks for another 3 and Johnson hit a pair of free throws to make it 65-53, an eight-point spurt in just over a minute. Gavin then hit a three before scoring in transition off a Broman steal to make the Eagles’ lead 17, 70-53.

Critical

Winthrop made just 3-of-22 shots from beyond the arc in a 19-point loss to the Chanticleers in Conway, but Thursday it was Coastal’s turn for a barren stretch from 3-point land.

Cliff Ellis’ team was 1-for-10 from 3 in the first half, and finished 4-for-23 for the game. Neither team could hit a shot in the first half, but it was Winthrop’s game once the Eagles started to hit some shots and Coastal continued to struggle.

Just as critical for Winthrop was taking advantage of its foul-shooting opportunities. The Eagles hit all 20 of their freebies, led by Johnson, who was 10-for-10.

Star contributors

Cooks was in a zone from distance, his feathery jumpers falling in nearly every time defenders would sag off him. The 6-foot-8 Aussie hit 6-of-8, both career-highs.

Ellis asked the media afterward, “has he had a game like that?”

“The guards were really good at getting in the lane tonight and creating for myself,” said Cooks. “Shooting open 3’s and making them, my job wasn’t really hard.”

Cooks added 10 rebounds for his sixth double-double of the season, while Johnson pitched in 16 points for his 30th straight double-digit scoring game.

And freshman Adam Pickett finished in double figures for the first time since Dec. 28, scoring 10 points off the bench in his most consequential outing in a Winthrop uniform.

“What’d he have? Ten points in 10 minutes? One thing about Adam, he’s always gonna be aggressive,” said Cooks. “That’s the best thing and probably the worst thing about him. He did really good for us today.”

Coastal would have certainly sunk earlier were it not for former Hartsville High star Shaw. He finished with 19 points, while Colton Ray-St. Cyr had a Coastal-high 20.

On deck

Winthrop faces another crunch Big South contest at home Saturday at noon against league-leading Asheville. The Eagles led the Bulldogs by 23 points early in the second half of their Jan. 6 meeting before Asheville roared back for an 85-84 win. Coastal (16-10, 10-6) is off until next Thursday when the Chanticleers host Charleston Southern.

This story was originally published February 18, 2016 at 9:23 PM with the headline "Winthrop knocks out rival Coastal Carolina one last time."