Winthrop Wins 15th Straight Home Game With 80-71 Victory Over Gardner-Webb

    ROCK HILL, SC–Owen Barnes scored a career-high 18 points and grabbed nine rebounds to lead Winthrop to a 80-71 non-conference victory Wednesday night over Gardner-Webb. It was the 15^th straight homecourt win for the Eagles tying them with Tennessee for the nine longest streak in the nation.

    Winthrop improves to 6-8 overall while GWU drops to 7-8.

    Barnes, a senior, who came into the game with just 34 career points matched his previous game-high of four points in the first three minutes of the game. He connected on 7 of 12 field goals and added four free throws to share game-high scoring honors with teammate Marcus Stewart. Barnes tied his career-high with nine rebounds.

    It appeared early on that this one would be a breeze for the Eagles who broke a four-game losing skid as Winthrop jumped out to a 14-6 lead in the first nine minutes and led 30-15 with 3:23 remaining in the opening period. However the scrappy Bulldogs caught fire from 3-point range in the final minutes of the first half to outscore the Eagles 18-7 and cut deficit to 37-33 at intermission. All eighteen points during that run came from beyond the 3-point arc.. GWU’s Matt Poynter came off the bench to connect on three treys. He finished the game with 17 points to lead the Bulldogs.

    Winthrop’s next game will be Saturday night at Elon as they get back to Big South Conference action.