RICHMOND, VA—The women's basketball team heads to Richmond, VA in search of its first win of the 2010-11 season as it faces Virginia Commonwealth at 7 p.m. at the Verizon Wireless Arena.
The Lady Eagles will look to spoil the home opener for the Rams, who opened the season with a last second win at High Point on Friday.
This will be just the third meeting all-time between the two schools as VCU has won the first two meetings. The first ever matchup came in 1992 in Rock Hill, SC where the Rams won 79-55. Last year the teams met in Fort Mill, SC at the former Charlotte Bobcats Training Facility, where VCU turned 15 Lady Eagle turnovers in the first half into 17 points and a 41-26 lead at the break. Winthrop held VCU to just 14 percent shooting in the second half, but couldn't take advantage as it shot just 35 percent and committed 12 turnovers. VCU won 65-51.
The Lady Eagles opened up the season last weekend at the Winthrop Classic with a 59-51 loss to Belmont on Friday and suffered an 81-56 loss to North Carolina A&T on Sunday.
Lacey Lyons was one of the bright spots in the first two games as she shot 54 percent from the floor en route to an average of 18.0 points per game. She was named to the Winthrop Classic All-Tournament Team.
Winthrop has lost four of its last five non-conference road games with the last win coming on Dec. 21, 2009 at Campbell, 66-60. The last five non-conference road wins have all been similar in score. The Lady Eagles last five non-conference wins on the road, in addition to Campbell, include Longwood (69-60, 2008), Norfolk State (68-63, 2007), East Carolina (66-61, 2007), and Florida Atlantic (70-67, 2006).
In the history of the program, Winthrop is 8-31 in its first road game of the season and 2-22 since moving to the NCAA Division I level. The two wins since becoming a Division I member are Western Carolina in 1991 (74-63) and South Carolina State in 2007 (70-58).
In addition to Lyons, sophomore Mary Hathaway and junior Kaitlyn Rubino provided some offense for Winthrop. Hathaway scored 10 points in each of the first two games and is 4-for-7 from behind the arc. Rubino, who will miss tonight's game, averaged 9.5 points, 5.5 rebounds and shot 70 percent from the floor.
Four freshmen got their feet wet last weekend as Dequesha McClanahan, Tiffany Charles, Dee Gray and Allison Lawrence all saw action. McClanahan earned the starting point guard spot and played 27.5 minutes per game and averaged 4.5 points and 7.0 assists. She struggled from the field going 1-for-19. Charles played nearly 20 minutes a game and averaged 6.5 points and 3.5 rebounds, but also struggled shooting the ball as she was 3-for-13 from the field. She did get to the line more than any other Winthrop player and was 7-for-13 from the line. McClanahan was 7-for-12 from the line. Gray came off the bench in both games and played an average of 15 minutes and put in 1.5 points and grabbed 4.5 rebounds a game. She did not connect from the field (0-for-8), but was 3-for-4 from the foul line. Lawrence saw her first action as well, seeing the court for a few minutes in each game.
VCU is led by junior Courtney Hurt, who posted 20 points and 12 rebounds in the season opener. The 6-0 forward hit the game-winning shot with 1.4 seconds remaining. As a sophomore she averaged 13.7 points and 7.7 rebounds. Junior guard Jennifer Lane also provided some offense as she scored 14 points and dished out six assists. Lane has played and started in every game the past two seasons.
The Rams are coached by Beth Cunningham, in her eighth season, who became the school's all-time leader in wins last season. Under Cunningham, VCU is 24-3 all-time in November.
Winthrop's last victory in the state of Virginia was Feb. 14, 2009 with a 63-49 victory over Radford in the Dedmon Center.
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