ROCK HILL, SC-- The Winthrop women's basketball team will welcome High Point this Saturday in a Big South Conference match-up at 4 p.m. that will be televised on Fox College Sports.
It's an important game for the Lady Eagles as they try and remain in contention for a Top 4 finish in the Big South Conference standings. Currently Winthrop sits at 5-7 in the conference, but are only one game behind Charleston Southern and its opponent Saturday, High Point.
Winthrop is coming off a road loss at Radford on Monday and has won three of the last five games while High Point is 2-5 in the last five games and is coming off a loss at Gardner-Webb. Both teams are 12-13 overall. Three of the last five meetings between the two schools has been decided by single digits.
The Lady Eagles face a High Point team in which they've defeated the last three times at the Winthrop Coliseum. The series has definitely been in favor of the home team as Winthrop is 10-5 against the Panthers at home while 5-11 on the road. In the last three home meetings, Winthrop has scored an average of 58.7 points while holding High Point to 50.3 points.
Winthrop has averaged only 51.8 points in the last five games, but held opponents to 56.4 and is 3-2 in that span. Shooting has been improved as the team is knocking down 40 percent of its field goals and winning the battle of the boards (36.2-35.2). Defensively Winthrop has held opponents to 36 percent shooting and 26 percent behind the arc. The one area Winthrop has struggled in the last two games was second chance points, allowing Radford to get 17 and PC to get 12.
TaQuoia Hammick continues to produce as she's coming off a five point, 13-rebound performance at Radford. She also had three blocks and two assists. She's averaging 8.4 points and 10 rebounds in the last five games while shooting 57 percent.
After struggling to get involved with the offense much for a five-game stretch, Kaitlyn Rubino has shown up the last two games averaging 9.5 points (8-for-12 from the field). Her rebounding has been down with just five in the last four games when she had 10 the previous two games. She's averaging 3.6 on the year, but was over four per game before the recent lack of rebounds.
Winthrop's offense has gotten more production from the post players lately, but in the end the team has won nine of its 12 games with the guards leading the way in scoring. Dequesha McClanahan leads the team in scoring at 12.3 and the team is 7-5 when she is the top scorer in a game. However, when Lacey Lyons scores between seven and nine points, Winthrop is 7-2. When McClanahan and sophomore Mary Hathaway are in double-figures in the same game, the team is a perfect 5-0.
With the increase of the production from the post, Winthrop's guards have not kept pace as Lyons, McClanahan and Hathaway have all three struggled shooting the ball from three.
Lyons is 4-for-22 over the last five games, McClanahan is 6-for-18 and Hathaway is 2-for-9. Over the last 10 games, the three are a combined 27-for-107 (25 percent). So far this season Winthrop is 6-8 at home and has won all but one of its Saturday games at the Coliseum. The Lady Eagles have been able to accomplish this despite having worse offensive numbers at home than on the road. Winthrop averages 50 points at home and 53.8 on the road. It also shoots just 33 percent at home compared to 38 percent on the road.
If Winthrop is to win today, it will have to stop the most balanced scoring team in the league.
High Point has eight players that average 6.8 points per game or better, led by Shamia Brown's 12 per contest. The team has the ability for any of the eight to break out with big numbers. High Point has been led in scoring by eight different players all season with the team having the most success when Brown is the top scorer (6-3).
High Point averages 68.1 points per game and shoots the ball well at 41 percent from the field and 34 percent from three. Jurica Hargraves is the best deep threat with 48 made on the year and over 200 made in her career. She makes 38 percent from behind the arc. Mackenzie Maier shoots the ball well from behind the arc at 39 percent (27 made), but also has the ability to score inside as she averages 8.0. Maier scored 16 points as a sophomore in the Winthrop Coliseum as she was 6-for-8 from the floor and a perfect 3-for-3 from three.
Freshman Cheyenne Parker is having an impressive year as she averages 7.5 points and 8.0 rebounds with 57 blocks in 24 games. She's mostly come off the bench and has led the team in scoring three times in league play and has led the team in rebounding 12 times all year. Parker is battling Winthrop's McClanahan for the Freshman of the Year honors in the Big South. Between the two, they have captured 12 Freshman of the Week honors (six each). Emily Frazier of Liberty has the other two.
The Panthers have a 5-8 road record and 2-4 road record in the league, despite scoring 67 points per game on the road in conference games.
High Point has been in five games decided by less than 10 points in 12 league games.
A win today would put High Point in better position to try and earn a Top 4 finish in the conference as well.
The game will be televised on Fox College Sports (Channel 617 on DirecTV).
