ROCK HILL, SC—Winthrop has won four straight and faces a Charleston Southern team coming off a loss at Gardner-Webb in its conference opener this past Monday.
The matchup features the top rated defense in the Big South against the second best offense.
While Charleston Southern is scoring 68.9 points per game, the Lady Eagles are only allowing 56.2 and that average is down to 49.8 during the current winning streak.
After suffering one of the worst home losses in school history on Dec. 12, Winthrop decided to flip the switch and has since reeled off four straight wins. The team has picked it up on both ends of the court and is scoring 63.8 points and allowing under 50 points during the four game stretch.
Freshman Dequesha McClanahan and redshirt junior Ashley Cox have really stepped up offensively. McClanahan is averaging 17.5 points and has scored at least 17 points in four straight games. She's shooting 46 percent from the floor and 47 percent from behind the arc. She's also dishing out 4.8 assists.
Cox has averaged 10.3 points and 6.3 boards while shooting 43 percent from the floor and averaging 1.5 steals.
Kaitlyn Rubino, a junior forward, is also producing offensively with 8.0 points per game and is shooting an impressive 65 percent from the floor. She currently leads the team in field goal percentage (59 percent). She's coming off two of the best back-to-back games in her career with 16 against Southern Wesleyan and eight points in the win over Colorado State, including a big three late in the game.
Defensively Winthrop has held its opponents to just 32 percent shooting in the last four games. The Lady Eagles currently lead in the league in defensive field goal percentage as well (.353). Winthrop is also third in the league with 10.8 steals per game.
McClanahan leads the team in scoring (12.3), assists (43), and steals (33).
Lacey Lyons is second on the team in scoring at 8.3 per game and is leading the team with 24 threes made. One impressive note on Lyons during the win streak has been her shooting in the second half when it matters. After shooting just 22 percent from the floor in the first half of the four games, Lyons bounced back to shoot 42 percent in the second half and 44 percent from three.
Charleston Southern features two of the top scorers in the league in Katie Tull and Kelsey Wasmer.
As a team, Charleston Southern shoots a lot of threes and plays quick. The Lady Bucs have taken 120 more than any other team in the league (UNC Asheville is second).
Their 8.3 made threes per game average is ranked 8th nationally.
Tull averages 14.6 and her 3.5 threes per game are ranked 3rd nationally. She is shooting 38 percent from downtown and is going to become the Big South's All-Time leader in threes made in the near future. Tull currently has 250 in her career and trails Winthrop's Tiffany Rodd by just 13 now.
Wasmer averages 13.7 and does shoot the three (26 made this season), but scores inside and out. She is leading the team with 6.5 rebounds per game and is shooting 42 percent from the floor. She has led the team in scoring five times.
So far this season Charleston Southern is only 1-6 on the road, with the lone victory coming at Mercer on Dec. 20. In seven road games, the Lady Bucs have averaged 58.7 points and allowed 75.3. The team's magic number offensively is 70 points. The team is 6-2 when scoring 70 or more points and has not won a game without reaching that mark.
The Lady Eagles have allowed just two of their opponents this season to reach 70 or more points.
