‘Storied programs with great tradition’: Winthrop beats Queens in basketball showdown
The Queens University of Charlotte men’s basketball team employs a fast-paced offense, but it wasn’t fast enough Tuesday night.
While the Royals hung around in their 86-78 loss to Winthrop, they fell behind early.
Queens got it to a one-score game in the final minutes at Curry Arena, turning away several shot attempts and giving themselves chances to score during the late stages.
Queens was looking to defeat the Rock Hill school for the first time since 1993. Tuesday’s matchup was just the fourth game between the two teams in the past 30 years.
“This is basically a league game for us, to go on the road in a hostile environment where the crowd’s team is yelling at you the entire time,” Winthrop head coach Mark Prosser said. “To be in a place where they’re extremely talented, making plays and it’s a back-and-forth — that helps both teams.
“It’s two storied programs with great tradition playing each other. They’re extraordinarily well-coached and talented, and there are a lot of local kids who know one another. A lot of crossover recruiting, and a lot of great kids.”
How Winthrop beat Queens
Senior guard Chris Ashby powered the offense for the Royals (3-5), leading his team with 20 points, followed by Leo Colimerio — the graduate student forward put up 14 points on 5-of-8 shooting — and Charlottean Bryce Cash, who poured in 13 points on 5-of-6 shots from the field.
“I see the strides in this team going upwards,” Cash said. “I feel like we grew as a team, just being in a close game like that. Staying together, that really helps us have a positive attitude and keep the ball moving.”
Winthrop (7-3) opened a commanding lead during the first half. Queens closed the gap but ended up on the wrong side of several key scoring runs, failing to put points on the board for more than four minutes toward the end of the first half.
Trailing by 10 points early in the second half, Royals junior guard Nasir Mann — the brother of Charlotte Hornets guard Tre Mann — converted a four-point play. The initial trifecta came on a strong dish from Cash, and it helped Queens pull to within a one-possession deficit.
Graduate student guard Nick Johnson, who previously played for four seasons at New Hampshire, posted a 20-point night to the way for the Eagles. Senior guard Kasen Harrison scored 15 points on 5-of-8 shooting, and senior forward K.J. Doucet contributed 13 points.
Tai Hamilton, a Charlotte native who graduated from LaMelo Ball’s 1-of-1 Academy, scored nine points on 4-of-5 shots, with nearly all of them coming during the second half.
Notable
▪ Now in its third year in Division I, Queens men’s basketball has an improved scoring defense this season. It’s only been allowing roughly 60 points per game in its wins, a season after it ranked last in the Atlantic Sun in that category.
▪ Queens graduate student Malcolm Wilson, a 7-foot big man from Columbia, S.C., is averaging a nation-best 4.9 blocks per game — and made an emphatic swat during the final two minutes of Tuesday’s game. Wilson became the fourth Division I player since 2014 to block at least 34 shots before Dec. 1.
▪ Winthrop, the public university in Rock Hill, S.C., is now riding a three-game win streak. Two of its three losses have come against ACC opponents in Virginia Tech and Louisville.
Series history: Winthrop vs. Queens
The series between the Charlotte-area schools dates back to 1990, but the sides didn’t play between 1995 and 2010.
“Probably the hardest part about Division I basketball is getting home games for low-major teams,” Royals head coach Grant Leonard said. “We appreciate that Winthrop is willing to play us here at home every other year, and having that series with a regional opponent matters. Local opponent for us, and a rivalry.”
Winthrop, which also defeated Queens in a six-point game last season in Rock Hill, hasn’t lost to the Royals in more than 30 years. Queens’ last victory over the Eagles came in an 85-77 win in a non-conference game at the Winthrop Coliseum on Dec. 15, 1993.
“There are a lot of things about this game that make sense,” Leonard said. “Everybody in scheduling, we all know it’s difficult to try and schedule 32 home wins against the 32 worst teams in the country. It never works that way. It’s finding games that make sense.”
Up next
Queens is on the road this weekend at the ASUN/SoCon Challenge in Lexington, Virginia, where it will face the Virginia Military Institute at 1 p.m. Saturday.
The Eagles return home to Winthrop Coliseum in Rock Hill at 7 p.m. Saturday for a game against Coastal Carolina.
