Winthrop fans starting to chant "Up by 40!"
Winthrop 22 assists, 5 turnovers. Shooting 58.2 percent. Eagles came to play and Liberty had no chance.
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JLFJR wrote:Thanks for your input, PA! Very helpful.
February 28, 2006 · Rock Hill, S.C.
Winthrop placed seven players in double figures as it opened defense of its Big South Championship with a 93-52 victory over No. 8 seed Liberty Tuesday night in the quarterfinals of the Advanced Auto Parts Men’s Basketball Championship.
Winthrop (21-7) opened an early 15 point lead as junior center Craig Bradshaw led an Eagle attack that opened the game with a 17-2 run in the first eight minutes of play. Bradshaw’s eight points in the run were all inside the paint, where the Eagles held a 46-6 advantage.
All-Big South First Team selection Larry Blair, who dumped 38 on the Eagles a week ago when the Flames upset Winthrop 78-71, led Liberty (7-23) with 25 points on 8 of 25 shooting. The Flames had problems finding an offensive rhythm in the game as they battled through two six minute droughts. The first drought came after Blair’s opening basket at the 18:22 mark. The Flames would not score again until junior forward Damien Hubbard got on the board with 12 minutes to play.
With Winthrop leading 68-54 with 8:29 to play in the game, Liberty’s six minute scoring drought allowed the Eagles head coach Gregg Marshall to empty his bench and got positive play from sophomore forward Scott Draughn (11 points) and sophomore guard Michael Jenkins (7 points).
Winthrop sophomore forward Taj McCullough tied his career-high with 15 points. Joining McCullough in double figures were Chris Gaynor (13 points), Bradshaw (12 points), Torrell Martin (11 points), and Draughn with 11 off the bench. The Winthrop bench contributed 49 points compared to 7 bench points from the Flames.
Even with Blair’s 25 point performance, the Flames were never able to mount any sort of a comeback iin the second half. Hubbard finished with the game's only double-double of 11 points and 10 rebounds.
The Eagles protected the ball well only committing a season-low five turnovers, tying a tournament record for fewest in a game, while forcing 17 by the Flames which led to 23 points. Winthrop connected on 35-out-of-63 field goals (55.6 percent), while holding the visiting Flames to 38 percent.
Winthrop advances to play No. 5 seed High Point, an 87-84 winner over fourth seed Radford, in the first of two semifinal games Thursday night. Tip off is set for 7 p.m. at the Winthrop Coliseum. The second semifinal will match up No. 6 seed Charleston Southern and No. 2 Coastal Carolina at 9 p.m. Both games will be broadcast live on ESPNU and streamed live as part of the Big South Edge at www.bigsouthsports.com.
Winthrop Head Coach Gregg Marshall
“Game one is in the books and we played very, very well and I’m pleased with our effort, execution, defense and our balance. We did a much better playing against this group tonight than we did last week. Tonight we were not flat or uninspired.”
“Tonight we were ready for the opening tip. That’s as well as we’ve played to a man in a long time. Every guy played very well tonight, from my vantage point. Hopefully we can continue to play this well.”
“This is one game and we have to do it three. I understand we have a High Point team coming in here that has already won on the road and we are going to have to give the same effort and rebound and defend.”
“That’s the best that Taj McCullough has played since he’s been here.”
Liberty Head Coach Randy Dunton
“We ran into a buzz saw in the start of the second half as they certainly turned things up. Unfortunately, our defense didn’t have any substance to it to start the second half and they took full advantage of our lack of depth and fatigue.”
“They were certainly better today than they were a week ago when we played them in the Vines Center. They proved tonight why they are the best team in the conference with their dominating performance on the floor.”
JLFJR wrote:Thanks for your input, PA! Very helpful.
By Chris Lang
Lynchburg News & Advance
March 1, 2006
ROCK HILL, S.C. - Liberty just kept passing. There was no recourse, no big post player to dump the ball into. The only offensive option was to pass and pass and wait for an open shot to materialize.
By the time Evan Risher found an uncontested look in the corner, the buzzer went off, indicating a shot-clock violation.
Winthrop's Chris Gaynor did a couple of short pumps with his fist and slapped hands with Eagles coach Gregg Marshall. The defense that was lacking last Monday when Liberty stunned the Eagles in Lynchburg had returned, and any chance LU had for another massive upset vaporized.
Tuesday's Big South tournament quarterfinal game was never in doubt. Winthrop raced to a 15-point lead in the first eight minutes and cruised to a 93-52 victory at the Winthrop Coliseum.
The Eagles set a record for largest margin of victory in a tournament quarterfinal (41 points), eclipsing the mark set by Coastal Carolina in a 83-46 rout of Campbell in 1991.
Top-seeded Winthrop advances to Thursday's semifinals to face No. 5 High Point, an 87-84 winner at No. 4 Radford.
"That's as well as we've played, to a man, in a long time. Every guy who played tonight, played well," Marshall said. "I can go back and nitpick on the film, but I don't think I'm going to. It was one of those nights when everything flowed."
No one gave Liberty (7-23) much of a chance Tuesday, and it was evident early on why Winthrop (21-7) was the overwhelming favorite. The Eagles were deeper and quicker, and this time, they took Liberty seriously. So did the fans, who booed every player lustily during pre-game introductions.
The loss last Monday in Lynchburg still stung Marshall, who said as much on a Monday conference call of Big South coaches. Liberty broke the 70-point mark just nine times in its first 29 games, with one of those coming against the Eagles at Vines Center.
Defense was the emphasis, especially help defense on Liberty guard Larry Blair.
"Last week, I think we let ourselves down, we let our fans down," Gaynor said. "The coaching staff had us real prepared for the game, but we just didn't go out and execute. We had so much energy from every player tonight, especially on defense. Deflections, shot-clock violations, little things like that, they really helped us turn up our game and get us going."
Blair torched the Eagles for 37 points last week, and Marshall was ready to concede a reasonable number to the junior all-conference guard. Opponents have rarely stopped Blair this season.
As Winthrop built an early 19-4 lead, Blair didn't get as many touches as he's used to, and Liberty's offense was completely out of rhythm.
Winthrop is bereft of a one-man scoring show, though guard Torrell Martin can play the role when called upon. That makes the Eagles incredibly difficult to defend. Three Eagles average in double figures, and six scored at least 10 Tuesday.
Six-foot-10 center Craig Bradshaw (12 points) bulled inside for points. Gaynor (13 points) stroked it from the outside. Martin (11 points) was unstoppable in transition, darting down the floor for uncontested dunks after Liberty turnovers. Taj McCullough bounced his way to 15 points and played his best game in a Winthrop uniform, Marshall said.
"They ran some backdoor cuts, much more so than last week," said Blair, who led the Flames with 25 points. "I got beat off them a couple of times. They were making shots. They were dropping tonight."
Blair again didn't get a lot of help from his teammates. LU coach Randy Dunton kept a tight leash on his bench. Doug Stewart was the only reserve to play until Jeremy Eck entered the game with about 11 minutes left and the game already well out of reach. Damien Hubbard scored 11 points, all in the first half.
After taking the huge early lead, Winthrop allowed Liberty to get within nine twice. With Winthrop up 37-28, Martin canned a long, contested 3-pointer at the buzzer to put WU up 40-28 at the break.
Martin leaned back and hollered in celebration of the basket before bumping chests with Gaynor as the Eagles headed to the locker room.
It was a stark contrast to last Monday, when Martin slumped to the Vines Center floor as the buzzer sounded, the stark reality of his Eagles losing to one of the nation's worst teams setting in.
"It's like fire and ice," Martin said. "One moment, you seem so down and it seems like everything just isn't right. When you come out today, everything just seemed to be going right. We came out and played excellent today and it was a lot of fun."
PAmedic wrote:It made the "eight hours in a car in one day" worth while.
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