Cooks Nets Game-High 26 Points To Lead Winthrop Over Coastal Carolina
ROCK HILL, SC— Xavier Cooks knocked down six threes on his way to tying his career-high of 26 points to lead Winthrop to a 79-67 victory over Coastal Carolina, Thursday night at the Winthrop Coliseum.
It was the fourth straight win over Coastal at home for the Eagles as they improve to 19-7 on the year and 11-4 in the Big South. The Chanticleers fall to 16-10 overall and 10-6 in the league.
Winthrop is tied for first in the Big South standings with UNC Asheville as the two teams will square off on Saturday, Feb. 20 at noon at the Winthrop Coliseum. The game will air on the American Sports Network.
Cooks led all scorers and also pulled down 10 rebounds for his sixth double-double of the season. He paced four Eagles in double-figures as Keon Johnson finished with 16 points and six assists while Jimmy Gavin had 11 and Adam Pickett chipped in with 10 off the bench.
The Eagles pushed the lead to 7-8 points on a couple of occasions over the first 12 minutes of the second half before extending it to double-figures with 7:34 to play on a triple by Cooks. The held their double-figure lead for all but 14 seconds the rest of the way.
Coastal cut the deficit to four points with 8:47 left in the game after a Jaylen Shaw jumper, but then a three by Bjorn Broman sparked a 13-0 run that put the Eagles up 70-53 with just under five and a half to play. Cooks followed Broman with a triple of his own and then after Johnson made two free throws Gavin drained a three. Gavin completed the run by driving all the way to the basket for a layup to give Winthrop its biggest lead.
Winthrop finished the game shooting 39 percent from the floor, but was a perfect 20-for-20 at the free throw line. It was the best single-game performance at the line by an Eagle team since it tied a Big South Tournament record for free throw percentage against Liberty on Mar. 5, 2014 going 21-for-21.
Colton Ray-St Cyr led the Chanticleers with a career-high 20 points as he was 6-for-9 from the field and a perfect 7-for-7 at the line. Shaw was the only other Coastal player in double-figures with 19. Winthrop held Coastal to 36 percent shooting, including 4-for-23 behind the arc.
Both teams got off to a slow start offensively as it took nearly nine minutes for either to get to 10 points. They were both aggressive offensively and defensively and after nine ties and six lead changes it was Winthrop that led at the break, 32-31.
The Eagles managed to grab a halftime advantage despite shooting 33 percent for the game and 2-for-13 behind the arc as they were 10-for-10 at the foul line. Coastal finished shooting 39 percent in the first half and was 1-for-10 behind the arc.
With Coastal leading 24-23 with 4:36 to play in the half, Winthrop went on a 7-0 run for a six-point advantage. Duby Okeke sparked the spurt with a dunk inside followed by a Cooks triple and capped by a Gavin bucket when he drove baseline in transition and laid the ball in, forcing a timeout by Coastal.
The Chanticleers outscored the Eagles 7-2 over the final minutes as Ron Trapps three made it a one-point game with five seconds left.