ROCK HILL, SC-- Winthrop starts the second half of the conference slate today as it heads to Conway, SC to take on Coastal Carolina Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m., less than two weeks from its previous meeting.
In the meeting at the Winthrop Coliseum 12 days ago, Winthrop had one of its worst offensive outputs of the year and shot only 20 percent from the floor. Winthrop had 13 more shots than Coastal and committed just 12 turnovers, but managed to shoot just 5-for-29 in the second half, including 1-for-16 from behind the arc in the game.
The team bounced back with a solid performance against Longwood at home in the final non-conference game of the year. Winthrop held Longwood to its second lowest point total of the season (38 at Maryland is the lowest) and 26 percent shooting. Longwood was averaging 63 points per game. It was the second straight game Winthrop held an opponent under 50 points and just the sixth time under head coach Bud Childers that Winthrop lost a game when doing so (30-6).
After winning seven of nine games, Winthrop is just 5-5 in its last 10 games and 2-3 in the last five. In the last five games Winthrop has only averaged 47 points offensively and shot 34 percent from the floor and 52 percent from the foul line.
The numbers in wins and losses for the Lady Eagles are like night and day. In the games Winthrop has won its averaged 63.1 points per game and shot 41 percent from the floor and won the battle of the boards 40.5-35.8. In those games opponents have shot just 31 percent and scoring 51.8 points. Freshman Dequesha McClanahan is averaging 16.7 points in wins and shooting 44 percent from the floor and 36 percent from three. Kaitlyn Rubino is averaging 9.6 points in the 10 wins.
Despite her recent slump, McClanahan still leads the team in scoring overall at 12.6 per game, which is ranked sixth in the Big South.
The Coastal game starts a stretch of six out of eight games on the road for Winthrop. So far the Lady Eagles are 1-1 on the road in the league and 2-3 overall with losses at Virginia Tech and Virginia Commonwealth.
A win today would mean a lot to the Lady Eagles in the Big South Conference standings as it would keep them in the running for a third or fourth place finish. A loss could keep them three games back or put them four games back depending on how Gardner-Webb does at Liberty. Currently the Lady Eagles are just one game out of fourth and in a three-way tie for sixth.
Coastal Carolina has won two straight after an 0-7 start to conference play, despite scoring less than 50 points.
After holding Winthrop to just 29 points, Coastal went home and held Presbyterian College to 34 points. The Blue Hose shot 25 percent and were 3-for-20 from behind the arc.
Sydnei Moss was just 4-for-16 from the field and had nine points while Olivia Irick led the team with 12 points. Moss still leads the Chanticleers in scoring at 11.0 points and 7.6 rebounds. She had 18 points and a career-high 15 rebounds in the first meeting against Winthrop.
Winthrop has only won one time at Kimbel Arena when it did not score 60 points. That was in 2006 in a 54-44 victory. Winthrop has won two of the last three meetings in Kimbel Arena and is averaging 65.3 points in those games.
