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ROCK HILL, SC—Coming off a 10-point road win on Saturday, the Winthrop women's basketball team will look to make it two in a row as it travels to take on UNC Asheville Monday evening at 7 p.m.

Winthrop battled its way to a 65-55 victory at Gardner-Webb Saturday evening, behind 25 points from sophomore Dequesha McClanahan.

UNC Asheville is one of the oldest rivals for the Lady Eagles as they meet for the 60^th time. Winthrop leads the all-time series 32-27 and has won the last four meetings in Asheville. However, this will be the first time the two teams meet on Asheville's new court, Kimmel Arena.

With the victory on Saturday, Winthrop keeps its hopes alive to finish in the top four of the Big South Conference standings as it is currently 6-5 in league play. Charleston Southern and Radford are currently tied for third with 7-5 records and play each other Monday night in Radford, VA. Winthrop is sitting all alone in fifth place.

McClanahan had an impressive performance on Saturday as she missed nearly seven minutes to start the second half after picking up her third foul at the 19:18 mark. When she returned nearly seven minutes later, McClanahan went on to score more than one point per minute on her way to 14 second half points and her fifth straight game with 20 or more points. She is leading the Big South in scoring at 20.1 points per game and still leading in assists at 7.4.

Junior Diana Choibekova had a quiet 15 points as she finished the game 5-for-11 from the field. Choibekova started off by hitting her first two shots, but then made just one of her next seven shots before ending the game 2-for-3 and finishing in double-figures for the 18^th time this season.
Choibekova's chase to set the Big South Conference single-season record for threes is down to eight guaranteed games (including first round of the tournament) and she's at 93, trailing the record by 14.

Winthrop has been hitting the offensive glass hard over the last few games and ended up with 27 against Gardner-Webb, which led to 28 second chance points that picked up the slack for a night in which the team struggled shooting the ball. It was the first time the Lady Eagles managed 20 or more points off second chances since Dec. 17, 2011 at Fordham. In the last eight games, Winthrop has had 20 offensive rebounds in half of the games. Prior to taking advantage of its second chances on Saturday, Winthrop was averaging 18.1 offensive rebounds in the previous second games but only averaging 13.2 second chance points.

Freshman Taylor Calvert turned in one of her best performances of the season as she finished with five points, a career-high 12 rebounds and four steals. Junior Katie Fitzgerald is ranked among the Top 10 in the Big South in offensive rebounds per game and she made her presence felt in the game at Gardner-Webb. Fitzgerald had six rebounds off the bench, four of which were on the offensive glass and also added two assists and two steals.

Winthrop will face a UNC Asheville team that has lost five straight games and seven of its last eight games. The Bulldogs suffered their fifth straight loss on Saturday, 62-45, to Presbyterian College at home. It was the lowest offensive output in 11 games for Asheville, which holds a scoring average of 68.7 points per game in 12 home games.

The Bulldogs are 7-16 overall on the season and 3-9 in the Big South and are led by a trio of scorers averaging double-figures.

Freshman of the Year candidate Shonese Jones leads the team in scoring with a 14.6 average and is shooting 41 percent from the floor and 40 percent from three (33-for-82). Jones is third on the team with 43 assists and second in steals with 27. Jones is coming off an 0-for-6 shooting performance and failed to score a point for the first time since the season-opener. Jones had scored in double-figures eight straight games, including 30 points on Jan. 30 against Radford.

Leah Wormack is also one of the top freshmen in the league and is second on the team in scoring at 10.8 points per game. Wormack shoots 52 percent from the field, fourth best in the league. She's also solid at the foul line at 73 percent and is leading the team with 26 blocks.

The third player averaging double-figures is senior Lindsey Thompson at 10.7 per game. She's one of the best free throw shooters in the league at 92 percent and leads the team with 71 assists.

Asheville features one of the best rebounders in the league and the nation in sophomore Kelli Riles, who is averaging 11.4 per game. That ranks eighth nationally and she's had 12 games with double-figure rebounds, including a conference record-setting performance of 28 on Nov. 30, 2011 against USC Upstate.

As a team, UNC Asheville is averaging 66.0 points per game and allowing 74.5, which ranks last in the conference. Winthrop is averaging 69.7 points per game and allowing 64.7, which ranks 7^th in the conference.