Winthrop powers past Charleston Southern, 72-48

Senior Ed O'Neil scored 21 points in final Buc Dome appearance

CHARLESTON, SC - Visiting Winthrop University spoiled the final home game of Charleston Southern senior guard Ed O'Neil, posting a solid 72-48 win over the Buccaneers at the CSU Field house on Saturday afternoon.

Forwards Tyrone Walker and Billy Houston combined for 35 points to pace the Eagles to their 15th victory of the season. The Eagles improve to 15-11 overall and 9-6 in Big South Conference play. Walker led his team with 20 points and eight rebounds while Houston scored 15 points. Craig Bradshaw's 11 rebounds paced the board effort.

Charleston Southern drops to 5-20 overall, 2-12 in Big South play after having their two-game winning streak snapped. O'Neil, CSU's all-time leader in steals and assists, went out in grand style. The 6-0 senior from Queens, New York, scored a career-high 21 points and finished with six assists. Junior forward Kurtis Rice scored 10 points and junior forward Nathan Ball added eight points and nine rebounds.

Trailing, 31-28, at the half, Charleston Southern shot only 26.3 percent from the field in the second half while the Eagles connected on 50 percent of their second-half attempts. A four-point play by O'Neil to open the second-half gave CSU a 32-31 lead. After Winthrop took a six-point lead, O'Neil hit another of his five three-pointers to pull the Bucs to within three at 40-37.

Winthrop proceeded on a 16-6 run over the next seven minutes to go up 56-43 with 7:04 to play in the game. CSU would score only five points over the last eight minutes, falling behind by as many as 27 in the final minute.

With VMI's upset win over league-leading Liberty on Saturday, CSU will finish last in the Big South Conference regular season standings. The Bucs have road games at UNC Asheville and Coastal Carolina this week and will open the Big South tournament at top-seeded Liberty on March 2.

CSU will play at UNC Asheville on Tuesday night and at Coastal Carolina on Saturday.