ROCK HILL, SC-- The Winthrop women's basketball team looks for its second straight win and seventh in the last eight games as it hosts Presbyterian College Monday night at 7 p.m., in Big South Conference action.
Winthrop bounced back from its first loss in over a month on Tuesday with a 10-point victory over Radford on Saturday. It was the sixth win in the last seven games for the Lady Eagles, who are 2-1 in the league for the first time since the 2007-08 season. That year the team finished 7-5 in the Big South.
    Against the Highlanders, Winthrop struggled shooting in the first half as freshman Dequesha McClanahan kept the game close with 15 first half points as she was 3-for-7 from the field and a perfect 8-for-8 from the foul line. The rest of the team was 5-for-20 (25 percent). Combined with the second half of Tuesday's game against Gardner-Webb and the team was 10-52 (19 percent).
    However, Winthrop rallied as a team and shot 58 percent from the floor in the second half. McClanahan was 1-for-6 and finished with a team-high 21 points, but the rest of the team combined to shoot 14-for-20 (70 percent).
    Despite the poor shooting at the end of the Gardner-Webb game and the start of the Radford game, Winthrop is shooting 44 percent as a team from the floor in its last five games.
    McClanahan leads the team in scoring overall at 13.1 points and is averaging 16.8 in the last five. Head coach Bud Childers is finally getting some production from the low post position as Kaitlyn Rubino has averaged 12 points per game over the last five and is shooting 57 percent from the field. She's also averaging 4.0 rebounds and 1.6 assists. TaQuoia Hammick is averaging 6.6 points and 6.4 rebounds in that stretch.
    Winthrop as a team has scored 66.6 points per game in the last five and is holding opponents to 51 points and 29 percent shooting from the floor. If opponents weren't shooting 74 percent from the foul line in those games, the defensive number could be below 50 per game.
    A win tonight would put the Lady Eagles at 3-1 in the Big South for the first time since the 2005-06 season when the team started 4-1.
    Presbyterian College is coming off a a five-point loss at Charleston Southern (52-47) and has lost three straight after winning two in a row.
    The Blue Hose have the lowest scoring offense in the Big South at 50.6 , but have the second best defense allowing 56.1 points. Tonight is a match-up of the top two defensive teams in the Big South. Winthrop leads the Big South in field goal percentage defense while Presbyterian College is third.
    Sophomore Mariah Pietrowski is the leader on the Blue Hose squad as she averages 10.1 points and 5.8 rebounds. She is shooting 57 percent from the floor, which ranks second in the league.
    Junior Kristen Stevens is second on the team with 6.9 points per game and is the top three-point shooter at 40 percent (29-for-72). Sophomore Chelsea Parker only has 12 attempts from behind the arc on the season, but has made six.
    Dria David, a sophomore guard, averages 6.7 points and leads the team in assists with 39.
    Petrowski leads the team in scoring average, but has only led the team in scoring in a game five times this season. In those five games, the Blue Hose are 2-3.
    Presbyterian College is 1-8 on the road this year, with the only road win coming on Nov. 23, 2010 at South Carolina State (51-38). As a team the Blue Hose have averaged 46.8 points on the road.