2023-24 Winthrop Men’s Basketball Season – GAME #30 (BIG SOUTH GAME #15)
Final Score: High Point 100, Winthrop 96 (OT)
For the first time in the Mark Prosser era, WU as dropped an overtime game (the Eagles were 7-0 under Prosser in OT games before this one), as the Eagles battled back from 19 down to force an extra period, before falling to High Point, 100-96.
The positives:
-Winthrop did an amazing job on the glass, against an HPU team that is normally an elite rebounding team. WU had 15 offensive rebounds (34.9% of their misses), while HPU only had 5 (17.9% of their misses).
-The Eagles were also effective around the basket, shooting 55.8% on 2PT shots, and earning 50 FT attempts.
-Kasen Harrison had 27 points, making 10 of 17 from the field and 5 of 6 from the FT line.
The negatives:
-WU may have gotten to the FT line 50 times, but only made 30 of their attempts (60%). Those 20 misses proved costly, especially considering that HPU was 32 for 36 (88.9%) from the line.
-The Eagles snapped a five-game streak of hitting under 30% of their threes…but unfortunately they only managed to hit 30%, making 6 of 20.
-WU’s coaches would have likely been happy before the game if you told them that HPU would shoot more than half of their FG attempts from 3PT range, as the Panthers were the 2nd worse 3PT shooting team in the Big South in conference games going into the game. Unfortunately, High Point ended up making 14 of 29 from three (48.3%)…the 14 makes were the most for HPU against a D1 opponent this year.
Final takeaways:
This season has seen a lot of close losses to good teams for Winthrop, and this one can be added to the list. The Eagles did an amazing job coming back after trailing by 19 early in the second half, and by 18 with under 10 minutes to go. But the struggles at the FT line, the disparity in three-point shooting, and a huge turnover late in OT came back to haunt the Eagles. The silver lining is that WU seems to have a very good gameplan to use against HPU, and they’ve gone toe-to-toe with the league leader in both matchups, making me optimistic that WU could pull off a win over the Panthers in the Big South semifinals if these teams meet next Saturday. But High Point has been an elite offensive team all year, and they showed that again in this game with their efficiency from deep and from the FT line. On the other end, WU left a lot of easy points on the table. And that’s been the story of this season for these two programs…but hopefully the Eagles can figure out a way to clean things up just enough to come away with a different result if these teams play again in the tournament.
Next game:
WU vs. Gardner-Webb – Saturday, March 2, 2:00pm EST
Results around the Big South:
USC Upstate 74, Presbyterian 72
Charleston Southern 58, Radford 57
Gardner-Webb 72, Longwood 69
UNC Asheville was off
Current Standings:
1. HPU 13-2
2. AVL 11-4
3. GWU 10-5
4. WU 8-7
5. CSU 6-9
T6. RAD 5-10
T6. LW 5-10
T6. PC 5-10
9. UPST 5-11
If the Big South Tournament started today (in High Point): – Bolded teams have locked up their spot:
First Round:
#9 USC Upstate vs. #8 Presbyterian
Quarterfinals:
UPST/PC winner vs. #1 High Point
#5 Charleston Southern vs. #4 Winthrop
#7 Longwood vs. #2 UNC Asheville
#6 Radford vs. #3 Gardner-Webb
Blogging the WU 