Box Score
BOILING SPRINGS, NC— The Winthrop women's basketball team dropped its fourth straight game with a tough 62-46 road loss at Gardner-Webb, Friday evening at Paul Porter Arena.
Winthrop is now 12-16 overall and falls to 5-10 in the Big South as the Runnin' Bulldogs improve to 19-10 overall and 10-5 in the league.
The two teams battled back-and-forth out of the intermission and Gardner-Webb stretched its lead by one point for a 35-24 lead at the first media timeout with 15:06 remaining. After cutting the lead down to nine points on a Lacey Lyons three with 14:10 left, Winthrop gave up back-to-back offensive rebounds that led to easy lay-ups by Catrina Green and the lead was 40-27. Winthrop never could crack into the lead any further and eventually fell behind by 20 points before getting it back to 16 in the end.
Winthrop couldn't keep pace offensively with the Runnin' Bulldogs, who continued to knockdown shots and didn't go more than two possessions without scoring in the first 10 minutes of the second half as they hit seven of the first 12 shots.
Gardner-Webb shot 46 percent from the field in the second half and 44 percent for the game while Winthrop finished at 31 percent.
“All you have to do is look at the stat line and see 18 threes attempted,” said Winthrop head coach Bud Childers. “We were shy going to the post tonight. TaQuoia Hammick and Chantel Johnson had virtually no touches tonight. We never put any pressure on Gardner-Webb. I thought Dequesha McClanahan and Tiffany Charles did a good job out there against their senior guards.”
After falling behind 9-0 to start the game, Winthrop fought back to get in the game and trailed by just four with 9:41 to go in the first half at 14-10. McClanahan drove the lane and was fouled as she converted the foul shot to cut the lead to four.
Gardner-Webb pushed the lead to seven points until McClanahan connected on a three-pointer from the wing with 7:15 remaining and then hit a short jumper just outside the lane as the shot clock wound down with 5:19 left to make it a two-point game. Defensively Winthrop forced turnovers on three straight possessions and were able to get as close as 17-15 with over five minutes left.
The Runnin' Bulldogs responded with a Jasmine Dale three from the corner and then Dominique Hudson scored as she made it all the way to the basket for a lay-up to push the lead back to seven points at 22-15 with 3:48 on the clock.
Winthrop only managed one more basket from there which came at the 3:39 mark when Katie Fitzgerald hit a nice turn-around jumper. Winthrop finished the half 0-for-3 from the field and committed two turnovers, which were both costly as Gardner-Webb converted them for five points.
The final basket came with five seconds before the half when Kim McKenney, who was 3-for-12 from behind the arc all season. She launched one from the wing in front of the Lady Eagle bench and it bounced on the rim a couple of times and looked like it might roll off as it settled on the front of the rim and then fell through.
The Lady Eagles shot 30 percent from the field in the first half while Gardner-Webb shot 41 percent. Winthrop committed only six first half turnovers but Gardner-Webb took full advantage and converted the miscues into 14 points. Gardner-Webb is extremely tough when leading at the half, sporting a 15-3 record.
Gardner-Webb finished with 23 points off turnovers and had 16 second chance points. Dominique Hudson led the Runnin' Bulldogs with 14 points and seven assists while Monique Hudson added 11 points and three assists.
McClanahan led all scorers with 17 points and had four assists and zero turnovers. Charles and Ashley Cox each chipped in with seven points.
Winthrop will finish the regular season on Monday, March 7 when it travels to North Charleston, SC to take on Charleston Southern at 7 p.m. at the CSU Fieldhouse. Winthrop won the first meeting of the year on Jan. 8 at the Winthrop Coliseum, 75-53.
