Lewis Scores 25, Grabs 16 Rebounds To Lead Winthrop Over Liberty 69-62

ROCK HILL, SC–Greg Lewis scored 25 points and pulled down 16 rebounds to lead Winthrop to a 69-62 Big South Conference victory Thursday night over visiting Liberty.

The win improves Winthrop to 7-4 in conference play and 13-11 overall while Liberty drops to 1-11 and 3-23.

Winthrop jumped out to a 23-13 lead with 6:59 left in the first half on a Marcus Stewart free throw and the Eagles still led by 10 at 30-20 with 3:50 left in the half when Liberty went on a 8-0 run and cut the deficit to just two at 30-28 on a Chris Caldwell three-pointer with 30 seconds left.

With Lewis asserting himself in the paint in the second half, Winthrop increased lead to 13 at 46-33 on a Lewis drive and bucket at the 14:40 mark. Still the Flames refused to fold and cut the deficit to six on a basket by Caldwell to bring Liberty to within 48-42 at the 12:21 mark. Lewis helped ignite a 12-2 Winthrop run with two dunks, the last coming on an over the head two-hander off an alley oop pass from Pierre Wooten. Winthrop led at that point 60-44 with 8:10 remaining. The Eagles did not score another field goal in the game as Liberty outscored Winthrop 18-9 down the stretch.

Winthrop had a chance to put the game away early in the second half, but the Eagles connected on just 14 of 27 free throws in the final period and finished the night with just 19 of 37 from the charity stripe.

Joining Lewis in double figures for the winners were Wooten with 11 and Tyrone Walker with 10. Caldwell led Liberty with 22 points and Phillip Ward added 13 to go with 8 rebounds. Vincent Okotie also pulled down eight rebounds for the Flames.