Box Score box score
LYNCHBURG, VA— The Winthrop women's basketball winning streak ended at two games as it ran into a hot Liberty team Monday evening at the Vines Center in a 72-38 loss.
Winthrop falls to 11-12 on the year and 4-6 in the Big South while Liberty improves to 16-8 overall and 10-1 in the league.
Liberty jumped out to a 21-point lead but Winthrop battled back to cut the lead to 12 points with 11:45 remaining after back-to-back threes from Dequesha McClanahan and Mary Hathaway. Liberty answered right back with a 10-0 run to push the lead back over 20 points.
Just a game removed from going 13-for-31 at the foul line, Liberty didn't struggle Monday night as it was 19-for-23 at the charity stripe. On top of that, Liberty shot 46 from the field in the game (60 percent in the second half).
“I thought we competed pretty hard in the first half,” said head coach Bud Childers. “The free throw differential was the major difference in the first half. Second half we just looked like a tired team and they went inside. I thought we looked like a sluggish team. They took it to us down in the paint. Liberty has a great team and they are very hard to beat at their place.”
Winthrop struggled offensively from the get-go as it missed 10 of its first 12 shots and committed six turnovers in the first nine minutes and 10 seconds. Of the 12 shots, eight of them were from behind the arc. That allowed Liberty to run out to a 17-5 lead.
The score was tied at 5-5 with 16:56 remaining after Lacey Lyons hit a three. Tiffany Charles knocked down two free throws to end a scoreless drought of six and a half minutes. The free throws sparked a 7-0 run to cut the lead to 17-12 with 7:56 left.
The two teams exchanged baskets over the next few possessions until the 4:47 mark. Liberty led 19-14 and ended the half on an 11-4 run. The run was highlighted by a three-point play from Avery Warley and a team performance of 5-for-6 at the foul line.
Winthrop shot 26 percent from the field in the first half and held Liberty to 33 percent, but the Flames were 9-for-12 at the foul line to hold a 30-18 advantage at the break. It was the lowest field goal percentage in the first half by Liberty since Jan. 9, 2011 at UNC Asheville when the Flames shot 31.4 percent.
The Lady Eagles have now lost 19 straight games at the Vines Center and the last six meetings overall against Liberty.
Liberty was led by Warley's 16 points and 12 rebounds while Devon Brown added 13 points and Tolu Omotola finished with 12.
Lyons led Winthrop with eight points while Kaitlyn Rubino added seven points, two assists and two steals. Winthrop shot just 26 percent from the field in the game and was 5-for-19 from behind the arc.
Winthrop will be back in action on Saturday, Feb. 19 when it travels to Clinton, SC to take on Presbyterian College at 5 p.m.
