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ROCK HILL, SC—The women's basketball team, coming off a road victory at Presbyterian College last Saturday, looks to build momentum as it returns home for the first time in nearly a month to host UNC Asheville on Saturday afternoon and Gardner-Webb Monday evening.

Winthrop will face UNC Asheville on Saturday at 1 p.m. at the Winthrop Coliseum and then face Gardner-Webb Monday night at 7 p.m. The game against Gardner-Webb is the “Pack The House” game so all students and fans are encouraged to come out and see how many seats we can fill. Monday's game is also an “Approved Cultural Event” for all Winthrop students. Admission to the game is free for all Winthrop students. There will be a West African Drummers performance at halftime as well as the Dance in Motion performing an African dance. In addition, the Ebonites Gospel Choir will be performing.

Monday is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and in remembrance, there will be basketball players reading famous MLK quotes on the video board during timeouts.

On Saturday, Winthrop will face an Asheville squad that is coming off two home wins and is currently 6-9 overall and 2-2 in the Big South.

Winthrop bounced back from its 0-2 start in the league with a 70-62 victory at Presbyterian College last Saturday behind 32-points from Dequesha McClanahan. The 32 points tied McClanahan's career-high as she also dished out 10 assists for her second career double-double.

Kaitlyn Rubino was impressive in the win over the Blue Hose as she had 14 points on 7-for-9 shooting and freshman Taylor Calvert chipped in with a career-high 10 points. In her last four games, Rubino is averaging 7.3 points and has a field goal percentage of .700.

The team is 2-2 over its last four games, but offensively has been rolling along at 72.5 points per game. The team is shooting 47 percent from the floor, 34 percent from three and 74 percent from the foul line in that stretch. McClanahan has averaged 26.5 points per game while shooting 51 percent from the floor and dished out an average of 6.8 assists per game.

Samiya Wright is averaging 12.5 points per game in her last four and shooting 50 percent from the floor and averaging 2.3 assists.

Diana Choibekova has hit a little bit of a shooting slump (27 percent in her last four games), but returns home where she's shooting 36 percent from three and averages 16.2 points per game.

In 2010-11, McClanahan has success in her two games against UNC Asheville at 23 ppg and 7.0 apg while shooting 43 percent. McClanahan will look to better her 12.3 points per game average against the Runnin' Bulldogs from a year ago.

Asheville features Shonese Jones and Lindsey Thompson as its top two scorers at 13.4 and 12.7 respectively. Jones is shooting 41 percent from the field and 43 percent behind the arc. She's also a solid free throw shooter at 77 percent (34-for-44). Thompson, this past week's Big South Conference Player of the Week, is second on the team with 25 three-pointers and is shooting 40 percent from the floor on the year. Thompson is averaging 15.8 ppg in league play while Jones is scoring 15.3 per game.

Asheville also has one of the league's best rebounders over the last couple of seasons in Kelli Riles. She had 24 rebounds in the season-opener and had 28 rebounds on Nov. 30 against USC Upstate. The 28 rebounds set a Big South Record for most in a single game.

Gardner-Webb got off to a slow start this season, dropping its first nine games of the season before winning two of its last five games. The Runnin' Bulldogs will face Presbyterian College on the road Saturday at 3 p.m. before coming to Rock Hill for a Monday night showdown.

Catrina Green leads Gardner-Webb in scoring at 10.2 points per game and is shooting 44 percent. She leads the team with 18 blocks and is also averaging a team best 8.4 rebounds per game.

Jasmine Dale is second on the team in scoring at 8.6 points and is the top deep threat on the team, shooting 34 percent behind the arc (22-for-65).
Gardner-Webb is coming off its first conference win of the season, a 73-63 victory over Coastal Carolina this past Monday.

Winthrop has won five of the last six meetings with Asheville, but have lost the last meeting 66-61 at the Winthrop Coliseum on Feb. 28, 2011. The Lady Eagles are 3-8 all-time against the Runnin' Bulldogs and have lost the last eight meetings after having won the first three in the series history. Winthrop only has one victory over Gardner-Webb since its move to the Division I level.