Box Score

PUERTO VALLARTA, MEXICO--Dequesha McClanahan connected on a last-second bank shot to give the Winthrop women's basketball team a 61-59 upset victory over Mississippi State in the opening round of the 2012 Hardwood Tournament of Hope in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. 

With the win the Eagles improve to 2-1 and advance in the winner's bracket to play Oregon State, a 49-46 winner over UC Santa Barbara, on Wednesday.  The game is scheduled to tip off at 4:30 p.m. EST.  The victory was the second by Winthrop against Mississippi State in as many tries.  The other win came during the 1972-73 season when the Eagles claimed a 37-36 victory in Starkville.  The victory was also the fifth all-time by the Winthrop women against SEC opponents.  The loss drops MSU to 2-2.

McClanahan, the reigning Big South Conference Player of the Year, made the game-winner after taking the ball inbounds with 3.9 seconds on the clock following a Winthrop timeout and driving the length of the floor before putting up a running jumper from the right side of the lane.  It was her only basket of the second half as she finished the game with 13 points. MSU had just tied the game on a 16-footer by Martha Alwal, a 6-4 sophomore center, who led all scorers in the game with 23 points. 

Freshman center Schaquilla Nunn had a record-setting performance as she recorded the first triple-double of her career with a 10-point, 13-rebound and 10-block performance.  The 10 blocked shots tied the Winthrop and Big South Conference records with 10 blocked shots.  She is now tied with former Eagle Tammy Jones, who had 10 blocks against Coastal Carolina on Feb. 11, 1992, and two High Point players, Mackenzie Maier and Cheyenne Parker.

Joining McClanahan and Nunn  in double figures were Diana Choibekova with 17 and  Samiya Wright, 13.  Freshman guard Aliyah Kilpatrick came off the bench to score six for the Eagles. 

“This was a hard fought game and the victory was a total team effort,” said Winthrop head coach Kevin Cook. “We were able to overcome great play by the Mississippi State posts and we battled their full court pressure to come up with the win.

“We are improving in our decision making which is something that we've been working on.  Each player contributed to this win and now we have another great opportunity against Oregon State on Wednesday.  We have to show some super bounce back because Oregon State has a nice team and they will be another good test for us.”

After trailing 26-23 at intermission, Winthrop came back to tie the game at 31-31 with just under 16 minutes left in the game on a bucket by Nunn following a pass from McClanahan.  But with Alwal working inside, MSU scored six unanswered points to take a six-point lead at 37-31.  The Bulldogs went up by seven points at 49-42 with 8:07 remaining on a 3-pointer by Kendra Grant.

MSU then took its largest lead of the game at 53-44 and looked to be taking control, but Winthrop fought back by going on a 13-0 run in less than three minutes to claim a 57-53 lead with 2:38 left to play.  The Eagles, who missed six of seven free throws in the first half, hit six straight during that run and got a key 3-pointer and a put back on an offensive rebound by Choibekova.  After MSU cut the deficit to two on a bucket inside by Sherise Williams, Wright answered with two more free throws to put the Eagles up 59-55a with 1:32 on the clock.  

Williams again scored in close to make it a two-point game again and then MSU forced Winthrop into a shot clock violation with 28 seconds left to set up the frantic finish.  Following a Bulldog miss, the Eagles got the rebound and Nunn was fouled with 12 seconds left, but missed both free throws giving MSU some daylight which Alwal took advantage of with her tying jumper.  The officials put seven-tenths of a second back on the clock as coach Cook called a timeout to set up the final winning shot by McClanahan.

For the game Winthrop connected on 22 of 56 field goals (39.3 percent) and was 5 of 13 from behind the arc (38.5 percent).  After the poor first half performance from the free throw line, the Eagles converted 11 of 14 in the second half to finish at 12 of 21.  Winthrop won the rebounding battle 41-38.

In the first half, Winthrop took a 16-8 lead with an early 9-2 run as the Eagles connected on four straight buckets over a three-minute span. Nunn scored inside the pain on a dish from McClanahan to put the Eagles up 7-6 to begin the run.  Winthrop then scored on back-to-back buckets after offensive rebounds by Nunn and sophomore forward Taylor Calvert.  Choibekova drilled her second 3-pointer of the game to make it a 14-8 lead and Nunn closed out the run with another field goal in the paint to make it a 16-8 lead with just under 13 minutes left in the period.

But over the final 12 minutes of the half, Mississippi State outscored the Eagles 18-7 as Winthrop made just 3 of its last 23 shots of the half and missed six free throws.