ROCK HILL, SC-- Winthrop looks to end a two-game skid as it hosts UNC Asheville Monday night in a game that will play a key role in positioning for seeding at the Big South Conference Tournament in two weeks.
A victory tonight could keep the Lady Eagles chances of fourth place alive, but a loss will likely place them between fifth and seventh by the end of the regular season.
Winthrop leads the Bulldogs by one game and trail Charleston Southern by one game and are currently a half game up on Presbyterian College.
So far during the conference schedule, Winthrop has been pretty tough on Saturdays posting a 5-1 record until falling at home on Senior Day to High Point this past Saturday. Winthrop held a tough offensive Panther team to 35 percent shooting and 57 points, but managed to only shoot 30 percent themselves. Winthrop had 18 offensive rebounds, but missed several second chance opportunities from close. High Point leads the league in scoring in conference games only at 66.9.
As much success as the team has had on Saturdays during conference games, they've had the complete opposite on Monday games, going 0-5 and scoring 20 fewer points per game. Winthrop is 0-6 in the conference games following the Saturday games as they faced Gardner-Webb on a Tuesday when it was postponed a day due to snow.
Winthrop hopes to break that streak tonight when it faces a Bulldog team it defeated earlier this season when it rallied from 15 points down. That was 10 games ago and Winthrop posted 71 points in the win.
Since then, Winthrop is 4-6 and has struggled offensively, scoring just 48.6 points per game and having scored over 60 just once.
The team is shooting 36 percent during that span but there is no consistency as the post players have picked up their scoring and shooting while the guards have struggled.
Dequesha McClanahan is shooting 33 percent in the last 10 games and her average is 10.9 points in that span. She's only shooting 28 percent from behind the arc and 55 percent from the charity stripe. Her rebounds are down from 4.0 on the year to 2.9 in the last 10. She's also only recorded 16 steals, when she had 39 in the first 16 games of the year. Her struggles really started eight games ago and followed two of her best games back-to-back in her brief career. She scored 26 points against UNC Asheville in the come from behind win and then posted 18 points in a loss at High Point. Since she's averaged 8.9 points, shooting 27 percent from the floor.
Mary Hathaway has also struggled as she's shooting 33 percent in the last 10 games and didn't take a single shot in the loss to High Point on Saturday. It was the first time this season, third time in her career and second time when starting a game. Hathaway has only hit three of her last 29 attempts from behind the arc.
Lacey Lyons has struggled, having shot 30 percent over the last five games and 21 percent from three, but has managed to score at least eight points in the last four games.
Freshman Tiffany Charles is 2-for-22 in the last five games.
TaQuoia Hammick is coming off a 4-for-13 night off the bench against High Point, but has recently shot well at 49 percent in the last five games while averaging 9.2 points and 10.4 rebounds. Ashley Cox is coming off 15 points on Saturday and is shooting 50 percent in the last five games and averaging 7.8 points. Kaitlyn Rubino is shooting 52 percent, but her production is down to 6.0 points and 1.6 rebounds in the last five games.
Winthrop is facing an Asheville team that is coming off a victory over Coastal Carolina last Monday that ended a four-game losing streak. Since the Bulldogs lost to Winthrop on Jan. 22, they've gone 3-6.
Offensively Asheville ranks near the top in most categories in the Big South while Winthrop ranks near the bottom. Defensively Asheville ranks near the bottom of most categories while Winthrop ranks near the top.
Something will have to give in this matchup.
Kendall Shepard is coming off a 22 point performance in the win on Saturday and it's the fourth time in the last six games that a Bulldog player has posted 20 points or more. Lindsey Montgomery had the other three at 20 vs. Charleston Southern, 24 at Longwood and 22 at Radford.
Asheville has four players averaging double-figures with Shepard tops at 14.9, which is second best in the league. Shepard has the ability to knock down threes, but gets most of her points from inside the arc and at the foul line(98-for-126).
Montgomery is averaging 13.2 points and shooting 47 percent from the field while Lindsey Thompson averages 11.3 off the bench and Kelli Riles is also averaging 11.3.
Asheville (11-15) is second in the league in scoring in conference games only at 65.5 and is shooting 40 percent. Of the four conference wins, three of them have come on the road as the Bulldogs offense doens't differ much away from the Justice Center as they've averaged 64 points in five conference road games. The Bulldogs have defeated Gardner-Webb and Radford on the road.
