Box Score
N.CHARLESTON, SC— Winthrop couldn't overcome a late 10-0 run in the first half that put the team down 21 points at the break and dropped its fifth straight in a 70-55 loss to Charleston Southern, Monday evening at the CSU Fieldhouse in the team's regular season finale.
The Lady Eagles are now 12-17 overall and finish league play with a 5-11 record. Winthrop started the season with three straight losses, but turned in the fourth most wins in a season for a Winthrop squad that has started the season 0-3 or worse.
Charleston Southern finishes the regular season at 14-15 overall and a conference record of 8-8. It's just the second win for the Bucs in the last 10 meetings of the series.
The halftime deficit was too large for the Lady Eagles to overcome in the second half, despite the effort to do so. Winthrop cut the lead to 14 points with 15:27 after two free throws by Dequesha McClanahan, but Katie Tull answered with a three-pointer from about five feet behind the three-point line to push the lead back to 17. In the second half, CSU came up with an answer every time Winthrop tried to cut into the lead.
With 2:49 left in the game, Winthrop cut the lead to 10 points as Tiffany Charles stole an inbounds pass after Mary Hathaway knocked down two free throws. Charles gave up the ball to McClanahan, who found TaQuoia Hammick underneath for the easy lay-in. With the lead cut to 10, it was Tull again as she drained a three from the corner as time wound down on the shot clock with 1:58 to go.
Winthrop came out sloppy five turnovers in the opening four minutes and that number grew to 19 by the end of the first half. Charleston Southern took full advantage of the Lady Eagles miscues and turned them into 27 points. Winthrop finished the first half 7-for-19 from the field and the Bucs were 16-for-33 (14 more shot attempts). The 19 turnovers tied a season-high for the first half, which the team did at North Carolina Central in a 62-60 win.
The turnovers allowed the Bucs to build an early 7-0 lead as Kesley Wasmer scored a drive and drilled a three. The lead increased to 21-8 with 9:31 remaining in the first half after a three-pointer from the wing by Helen Terry. The lead increased to 26-10 when Tull hit a three after the Eagles turned the ball over on the inbounds pass under their own basket. Winthrop was able to score seven straight after that basket and were within nine points with just under five and a half minutes to go after Lacey Lyons hit a three, which forced CSU to call timeout. The Bucs came right out and answered with a three of their own as Tull hit her third triple of the half to that point. That ignited a run that saw CSU outscore Winthrop 15-3 the remainder of the half.
Defensively the Lady Eagles held CSU to 38 percent shooting in the second half and 29 points and shot 52 percent and scored 35, but the margin was too much to rally from.
The Bucs finished the game shooting 44 percent, including 10 three-pointers and turned 28 Winthrop turnovers into 35 points.
Tull and Wasmer combined for 47 points with 24 and 23 respectively as they were also responsible for eight of the 10 threes for the Bucs. Lakeitha Alston chipped in with 10 points.
Hammick led Winthrop with 15 points and six boards while Lyons finished with 14 points as the two combined for 11-for-15 from the field while the rest of the team was 7-for-25.
Winthrop will be the seventh seed in the 2011 Advance Auto Parts Big South Championship and will face second-seeded Radford University on Friday, March 11 at 5:30 p.m. The two teams split the regular season with home team winning.
