ROCK HILL, S.C. - The Winthrop Eagles snapped a five-game losing streak and rolled to a 96-63 Big South Conference win over VMI Thursday night at Winthrop Coliseum in Rock Hill, S.C.
The Keydets remained winless on the road this year and dropped their fifth straight game while suffering their worst setback at Winthrop since an 85-41 loss to the Eagles two years ago.
VMI (4-8, 1-3 BSC) was paced in scoring by junior guard Austin Kenon, who scored 12 of his 14 points in the second half. Freshman forward Stan Okoye joined Kenon as VMI's only other double-figures scorer with 14 points.
Winthrop (6-9, 2-4), which entered the game shooting 34% from the floor on the season, fired 52% from the field for the evening and connected on 12 of 27 3-pointers for 44%. Five Eagles reached double-figures scoring led by sophomore center Matt Morgan with 15 points while sophomore guard Reggie Middleton added 13 points.
Winthrop contained VMI's outside shooting for most of the evening, limiting the Keydets to 9-of-26 shooting beyond the arc. The Keydets didn't fare any better looking for points inside as the Eagles posted 11 blocked shots for their second most in a game this season. VMI also committed 21 turnovers, the fourth time it had logged 20 or more turnovers in a game this year.
VMI's leading scorer on the season, sophomore guard Keith Gabriel (19.4 PPG), scored his team's first six points in the opening two minutes and helped the Keydets to a 9-7 lead at the 18:10 mark when sophomore guard Ron Burks canned a trey.
But the Eagles capitalized on two key scoring runs in the first half to take control of the game. A Reggie Middleton three-pointer started an 11-0 Winthrop string that propelled the Eagles to double the score to 18-9 when Andy Buechert nailed a jumper with 14:39 left.
Winthrop would break the game open later in the half with another run of 16 consecutive points. After Okoye slammed home a dunk with 11:27 left to pull VMI within a 23-16 score, the Eagles converted 3-pointers on four of their next six field goals and raced to a 39-16 lead following back-to-back treys by freshman guard Gideon Gamble.
Winthrop's lead would grow to as much as 25 points (43-18) at the 5:23 mark when Morgan hit a lay-up with 6:21 left in the opening half.
Trailing 46-25 at the half, VMI scored the first three points of the second half when Kenon converted three consecutive free throws after being fouled shooting a 3-pointer. It would mark VMI's last deficit under 20 points for the rest of the night as a Morgan layup with 18:21 left pushed the advantage back to 48-28. A 9-0 run later in the half pushed Winthrop's cushion over 30 points and as much as 38 points when Taylor Dunn drained a three in the game's final minute.
VMI was without the services of sophomore forward Hunter Houston (concussion) and red-shirt sophomore center Stephen Sargent (blood pressure) for the game. The roster was further curtailed when sophomore forward Aaron Blosser left the team for personal reasons earlier in the week and intends to transfer to another school.
The Keydets continue the road swing Saturday night with a Big South match-up against Presbyterian College at 7 p.m.
VMI Head Coach Duggar Baucom -
"We just weren't ready to play. We didn't play very tough, we didn't play very strong, and we didn't have very much energy. If you do that and you go on the road, you're going to get beat by 33 points."
"We were really soft with the ball as evidence with the 21 turnovers. It is stuff we have to get corrected. We never got into the rhythm of our game and credit Winthrop tonight. They made shots tonight and they hadn't done that recently."
"We didn't do a good job on the offensive boards. We play a certain style and we kind of got away from that. That will change and we'll be back to our identity on Saturday and we'll make corrections."
