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MACON, GA—After a couple of days off for the Christmas holiday, the Winthrop women's basketball team is back on the court preparing for its last non-conference contest of the season as it travels to Mercer for a 7 p.m. matchup on Wednesday, Dec. 28.

Winthrop is 5-6 and looking to even its record as it's coming off a 39-point victory at home over North Carolina Central. It was the largest margin of victory against an NCAA Division I opponent in school history. The previous record was 35 set in 2007-08 in the Big South Conference Tournament against Charleston Southern (76-41).

Over the last five games, Winthrop is 3-2 with two of the victories coming by more than 30 points, but also suffering a loss by 23 at Fordham. Winthrop has averaged 70.4 points per game during the five-game stretch and has picked it up defensively allowing nearly nine points less than it averages (61.8).

Dequesha McClanahan, Diana Choibekova and Samiya Wright have maintained their double-figure averages. McClanahan leads the team and the Big South Conference in scoring at 18.3 points and is also dishing out 6.7 assists per game. Choibekova is averaging 16.5 points and Wright is up to 12.1 per game.

All three are threats to score inside and out, but the biggest scoring threat outside is Choibekova. The junior leads the country in three-point baskets per game at 4.1 and is on pace to shatter the school record for threes in a single season. Wright is also a threat from behind the arc as she's shooting 51 percent (22-43). She entered the N.C. Central game not averaging enough three-point field goals per game to qualify for the national stats, but is now averaging exactly 2.0 per game and would be ranked in the top five.

McClanahan not only leads the league in scoring and assists per game, but she's also getting to the foul line 6.1 times per game and knocking down 76 percent. Winthrop has a team is shooting 73 percent from the charity stripe, which is second in the conference.

Winthrop has been struggling to defend the three-ball at times this season, but didn't allow a single three in the win over North Carolina Central. It was the first time since Jan. 6, 2009 vs. Johnson C. Smith (0-for-9) that a team didn't connect on a single three. NCCU went 0-for-8 while the Eagles went 8-for-29. The 29 three-point attempts were a season-high and school-record. The previous record was held by the 2005-06 team that attempted 27 against Charleston Southern.

The Eagles are taking on a Mercer team that is 3-8 on the year and 1-3 at home. The Bears are coming off a tough 76-75 road loss at UNC Asheville and are 2-2 in their last four games. Mercer captured its first home win of the season on Dec. 18 against Troy in overtime, 69-59. The three losses have coming against the likes of Auburn, Georgia and Georgia Southern.

Mercer started off the season with five straight losses before it took down one of the favorites in the Big South Conference on the road in a 75-67 victory at High Point. The Bears are 1-1 against the Big South this season.

In four home games, Mercer is averaging 52.5 points per game. The last home game saw Mercer outscore Troy 14-4 in the overtime period as it connected on 5-for-11 from the field,

Sophomore Briana Williams is coming off a 23-point performance at Asheville and had 27 points in the win over Troy. She leads the team in scoring at 14.8 points per game while shooting 34 percent from the field. Precious Bridges, a freshman guard, is second on the team at 10.1 points per game and leads the team with 34 free throw attempts (65 percent). Briana Williams leads the team in three-pointers made with 22 and the only other player with more than three is Alicia Williams, a freshman guard, with 16.
The all-time series favors Mercer as it holds a 7-2 record as this will be the 10^th meeting between the two schools. Mercer has won the last two meetings and the last three meetings have been decided by 10 points or less. Winthrop is 0-3 all-time at Mercer, but this will be the team's first ever meeting in the new arena.