Eagles Fall 71-58 To South Carolina St. In Costner Brothers Winthrop Shoot-Out

    ROCK HILL, SC--Greg Gray scored 18 points and pulled down eight rebounds to lead the South Carolina State Bulldogs to a 71-58 victory in the championship game of the inaugural Costner Brothers Winthrop Shoot-Out.

The win improves South Carolina State to 4-8 while Winthrop drops to 4-6 heading into the Christmas break.

Gray took home most valuable player honors as he led three Bulldogs in double figures. Joining him in double digits were LaRon Mapp with 15 and Luis Radford with 13. Point Andre Riviera joined Gray on the all-tournament team as he dished out eight assists, had four steals and six rebounds to go along with seven points.

Winthrop was plagued by poor perimeter shooting as the Eagles connected on just 3 of 27 three-point attempts for 11 percent and shot 38 percent overall (22-58). Pierre Wooten led the Eagles in scoring with 15 points while Tyrone Walker had 12 and a game-high nine rebounds.

After falling behind 5-0 in the opening two minutes, SC State claimed the lead at 11-9 on a layup by Samuel Ramsey with 11:02 left in the first half. The Bulldogs never trailed again as they outscored Winthrop 20-11 over the final ten minutes of the half to take a 31-20 lead at intermission.

The Bulldogs never allowed the Eagles to get to within single digits in the second half. After falling 17 points behind at 43-26 on a layup by Gray, Winthrop outscored SC State 10-3 to get to within 10 at 46-36 at the 11:03 mark, but the Eagles could get no closer. South Carolina State led by as many as 22 at 66-46 on a jumper by Luis Radford with 3:30 left in the game.