After soundly defeating High Point in the quarterfinal round and fending off Gardner-Webb in the semifinals, the Winthrop mens’ basketball team suffered a brutal loss in Sunday’s conference title game against the Longwood Lancers.
Longwood, which entered the tournament as the No. 1 seed after finishing the regular season 15-1 in conference play, jumped out to an early 9-2 lead over the Eagles.
Though Winthrop would momentarily get the score back to within five points after two free throws made by senior Micheal Anumba, the Lancers continued to step on the gas in the first half, putting more and more distance between the teams until the lead was as great as 21 points (37-16) with 3:39 left before halftime.
The Lancers shot 8-of-10 from behind the arc in the first half (compared to Winthrop’s 2-of-10), leading them to a 45-27 halftime advantage. Twenty-two of those Longwood points came off of Winthrop turnovers.
Winthrop was no stranger to playing from behind this season, but for the first time in a long time, the hole proved to be too deep for the Eagles to dig out of.
Winthrop pulled back to within 15, only for the Lancers to go on a 13-0 run, putting the Eagles down by a whopping 28 points (62-34) with under 14 minutes to play. From there out, the teams mostly maintained pace with each other as Winthrop slowly came to terms that it would not be “three-peating.”
One member of the Winthrop squad who won’t get another shot at making the NCAA Tournament is graduate transfer Patrick Good. Good was supposed to go “dancing” in 2020, when his East Tennessee State team went 30-4 and won the Southern Conference Championship under the leadership of head coach Steve Forbes.
That 2020 tournament was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, influencing Good’s decision in 2021 to join Winthrop for his final year of eligibility as he hoped to finally get to compete on the biggest stage in college basketball.
“What an emotional experience it has been as well a wonderful ride,” Good said in a farewell post on his social media platforms. “It flew by so fast, but I cherished [and] enjoyed all the flights, bus rides, team meals, film sessions, etc.
“I am glad I finished out my final year of eligibility at Winthrop University. Even though the championship game didn’t go as planned, this was a special year full of adversity [and] memories.”
Good finished with 11 points in Sunday’s loss — one of just three Winthrop players to record double-digit figures in scoring. He was joined by Anumba (who had 12) and Big South Player of the Year DJ Burns Jr. (who scored 14).
With Sunday’s result, Winthrop finishes the 2021-2022 season 23-9 overall in Mark Prosser’s first season as head coach. The Eagles only dropped three games to conference opponents — two in the regular season and the loss in the title match.
