Saturday, December 22
Carbondale, Ill.
3 p.m.
Southern Illinois University
7-6
71
vs
79
Winthrop
7-4
1
2
F
Winthrop
49
30
79
Southern Illinois
34
37
71
Hot-shooting Winthrop takes down SIU, 79-71
12/22/2018 | 6:44:00 | Men's Basketball
CARBONDALE, Ill. - The Winthrop Eagles hit 15 3-pointers en route to a 79-71 win over Southern Illinois on Saturday afternoon at SIU Arena. Winthrop hit 10 3-pointers in the first half to grow an 18-point lead and never let SIU get closer than seven points in the second half.Â
"They're going to hit 3's. Every time they hit a 3, you can't put your head down," SIU head coach Barry Hinson said. "We said they're going to shoot 34 3's; see if you can hold them to 10-for-34. That was our goal, and they went 15-for-34."
Josh Ferguson, Winthrop's center, had 20 points in the first half and went 4-for-6 from the 3-point line before the break. He finished with a career-high 26 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Eagles (7-4) to its third win in the last seven days.Â
Eagle point guard Nych Smith had 19 points and 7 assists for Winthrop, and his layup in the final 30 seconds of the first half put Winthrop up by 18 points. SIU guard Eric McGill hit a 3-pointer to cut it to a 15-point halftime deficit, 49-34.
SIU (7-6) cut the deficit to 10 points with 16 minutes to play but couldn't get over the hump. When SIU finally cut the lead to single digits with 8:43 remaining, Winthrop answered with back-to-back 3-pointers to push the margin right back to 15 points within a minute. The crowd of 5,009 got into the game when SIU cut the lead to 8 points with 3:24 left, but again, Winthrop answered with a 3-pointer.Â
Southern held Winthrop to 8-of-21 shooting (38 percent) in the second half--14 fewer shot attempts than Winthrop got in the first half--but the offense went cold, shooting 12-of-30 (40 percent) after the break. The Salukis finished 6-for-18 from the 3-point line, compared to Winthrop's 15-for-34. Sean Lloyd Jr. (20 points, 9 rebounds) and Eric McGill (18 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 steals) led the Salukis.Â
SIU dropped its third-straight game after a five-game winning streak had SIU sitting at 7-3. The Salukis are off until January 2, when Missouri Valley Conference play opens against Missouri State.Â
"You're going to have 10 coaches (in the MVC) who are going to say, 'It's a clean slate.' We have an opportunity to get better," Hinson said. "On January 2, we play Missouri State. It's the start of a new season, a season I have great anticipation for and great expectations for this team. Our goal has always been, and still is, to win a Missouri Valley championship, and we have a chance to start that on January 2."
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Team Stats
WU
SIU
FG%
.464
.415
3FG%
.441
.333
FT%
.857
.778
RB
33
33
TO
16
16
STL
6
7
Game Leaders
Pts
20
FGM
5
3FGM
2
FTM
8
Pts
18
FGM
5
3FGM
2
FTM
6
Pts
14
FGM
7
3FGM
0
FTM
0
Pts
7
FGM
2
3FGM
1
FTM
2
Players Mentioned
G
/ Men's BasketballG
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