Box Score
DURHAM, NC— Dequesha McClanahan's driving lay-in with four seconds remaining in the game lifted Winthrop to a 62-60 victory over North Carolina Central, Thursday evening in non-conference women's basketball action.
Winthrop improves to 2-4 overall while North Carolina Central falls to 1-5.
After tying the game at 60 all with 13 seconds remaining on a Shanise Blanks free throw, McClanahan quickly got the ball up court in front of the Lady Eagle bench where head coach Bud Childers called timeout. McClanahan took the inbounds pass behind midcourt, dribbled up and beat the defender all the way to the basket for the lay-up.
“It feels good to get a road win,” said Childers. “We got out to an early lead, but got careless with the basketball in the first half. Give NCCU credit as they came back and made it a game. In the second half we kept our composure and committed just five turnovers. Dequesha made a good play there at the end. It was a good victory.”
NCCU took a 59-57 lead 1:08 remaining after Jori Nwachukwu scored on a basket inside, but Winthrop's Kaitlyn Rubino's three-point play with 53 seconds left put the Lady Eagles back in the lead. Rubino rebounded a long miss by Lacey Lyons from three and quickly put back up a shot as she was fouled. Rubino knocked down the free throw for a 60-59 lead.
The second half opened up with four straight points by Winthrop as TaQuoia Hammick went 1-for-2 from the line and Lyons hit her second three of the game. Winthrop even held NCCU without a field goal for the first seven minutes and 40 seconds of the second half. However, NCCU connected on eight free throws in that span to keep the game close.
The Lady Eagles built as big a lead as 13 points in the first half with a couple of 8-0 runs. However, Winthrop couldn't hold it as the turnovers started to add up down the final nine minutes. After Katie Fitzgerald converted a three-point play off an inbounds play with 9:17 remaining, Winthrop managed just three more baskets.
NCU took an early 3-0 lead, but Winthrop answered with its first 8-0 run behind back-to-back treys by McClanahan and Mary Hathaway. The second 8-0 run came with the Lady Eagles leading 11-8 with 14:23 remaining when Hathaway reeled off eight straight points herself.
Winthrop finished with 18 turnovers in the first half that led to 14 points for NCCU. The Lady Eagles shot 37 percent from the floor in the first half and NCCU shot 36 percent. Winthrop did shoot well behind the arc hit five of 11 shots.
Hathaway led Winthrop with a career-high 16 points while McClanahan finished with 13 points and five rebounds. Winthrop finished the game with 20 steals after forcing 27 turnovers. The 20 steals is the most since Childers team did it on Nov. 28, 2006 at Appalachian State with 20.
Tiffany Charles, Gray and McClanahan each finished with five steals. Rubino came off the bench for eight points and a career-high nine rebounds. Lyons also had eight points along with two assists.
Nwachukwu led all scorers with 19 points while she also added 11 rebounds. Chasidy Williams added 15 points while Blanks had 10 points.
The game saw both teams combine to shoot 58 free throws as NCCU was 25-for-36 (69 percent) and the Lady Eagles were just 8-for-22 from the line.
Winthrop will be back in action on Sunday when it travels to Blacksburg, VA to take on Virginia Tech at 2 p.m.
