Winthrop Rally Falls Short In 71-67 NCAA Tournament Loss To Northwestern State

DAYTON, OH--Gregg Marshall's magic wand ran out of magic Tuesday night as the Winthrop Eagles' rally came up short in a 71-67 loss to Northwestern State in the opening round of the 2001 NCAA championship tournament.

The Eagles, who captured its third straight Big South championship and was making an unprecedented third consecutive appearance in the NCAA tournament, finishes the season at 18-13.

After staging second half comebacks to win double overtime and single overtime games in the Big South Conference tournament, the Eagles found themselves in the same situation against the Northwestern Demons with 11:42 remaining in the game and trailing by 12 points at 51-39.  Winthrop outscored the Southland Conference champions 23-11 over the next eight minutes to tie the game at 62-62 on a reverse layup by Roger Toxey, but was never able to take the lead. 

With the Eagles down 64-62 with 48 seconds left to play, Tywan Harris' 3-point attempt from the right wing to give Winthrop its first lead since midway through the first half rimmed out.  Freshman Tyrone Walker, who led the Eagles with his second straight double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds, also had a shot, but it was blocked with 24 seconds left, and Harris had another shot in the final seconds, but it came up short when he appeared to be fouled on a three-point attempt.

Derrick Knox scored 14 points and grabbed seven rebounds for Winthrop to earn the Chevrolet Player of the Game honors along with Northwestern State's 6-11 freshman D'or Fisher who scored 10 points, pulled down 11 rebounds and blocked nine shots.  Marcus Stewart added 13 points for the Eagles.