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ROCK HILL, SC— Diana Choibekova scored 25 points and Samiya Wright added a career-high 21 points to help lead Winthrop to a 71-69 victory over league-leading Liberty, Saturday afternoon in Big South Conference women's basketball action.

Wright scored 18 of her 21 points in the first half, but knocked down three free throws down the stretch, including two with one minute to play to give Winthrop a 68-64 lead.

Dequesha McClanahan scored 14 second half points, including two free throws with 14 seconds remaining for a 14-point advantage and hit 1-of-2 with four seconds left for a five-point advantage. Liberty's Reagan Miller hit a long three at the buzzer to make the final a two-point game. McClanahan finished the game with 18 points.

With the win, the Lady Eagles are now 14-11 overall and 8-5 in the Big South. Liberty's win streak ends at 11 as it falls to 17-8 overall and remains in first place at 12-2. The victory snaps an eight-game losing streak to the Flames as the last victory came on Feb. 27, 2008 at the Winthrop Coliseum, 56-52. The eight conference wins are the second most in school history.

“This is a monumental win for our team and I am very happy that our players got to experience what this feels like as we prepare for March,” said Winthrop head coach Marlene Stollings. “Liberty is the benchmark for success in the Big South. You are constantly measuring your team against Liberty to find game plans that will put you in the best possible situation to win. Our team is playing with such confidence and poise right now and we knew we had a solid chance to win if we executed the plan. I am so proud of our team and ecstatic for our fans and university. This is by far, the biggest win of my head coaching career.”

In her first season, Stollings has now given Winthrop its first ever league win over Campbell, defeated Radford in her first matchup and led the team to a win over league-power Liberty.
Winthrop led by as many as nine in the second half, but Liberty fought back with a 10-0 run to take a 51-50 lead with 9:26 to play. That set up a back-and-forth game that ended up in the favor of the Lady Eagles as they win their third straight and eighth in the last 11 games.

The game was tied with 3:01 remaining at 62-62 after Wright went 1-for-2 at the foul line. Back-to-back turnovers by Miller on the other end led to baskets by McClanahan and quickly pushed Winthrop into the lead by four points.

Hard work on the glass by the Flames turned into free throws from Tolu Omotola to cut the lead back to two points, but the Lady Eagles remained aggressive as Wright was fouled as she drove the lane and converted both free throws.

After leading by three points at the half, Winthrop built a nine-point advantage at the 14:32 mark as the Lady Eagles connected on threes by Choibekova and McClanahan. The run was capped off by a fast break lay-up by Wright that forced Liberty to call timeout.

Liberty came out of the timeout and picked things up defensively to help its way to a 10-0 run and a 51-50 lead. During the run, the Flames held Winthrop to 0-for-6 from the field and forced four turnovers. The scoreless span was five minutes and 22 seconds.

Winthrop responded with a Choibekova triple after Liberty took its first lead of the second half and first since the 11:42 mark of the first half.

Liberty opened up the game with a three from Miller and eventually led 9-4 after Devon Brown's jumper in the lane. The Flames had a couple of six-point advantages before Winthrop used a 12-1 run for a 21-16 lead with 9:34 left. After an Avery Warley lay-up cut the lead back to three, Winthrop's Choibekova knocked down a three followed by a McClanahan jumper for a 26-18 lead with 8:10 left.

Despite scoring just 10 points over the final eight minutes of the first half, Winthrop led 36-33 at the break. One of the keys to the first half was Winthrop committing only four turnovers and not allowing Liberty any pointes off the four miscues. Winthrop only shot 33 percent in the first half, but forced 13 turnovers and had nine offensive boards. Liberty shot 47 percent in the first half.

For the game, Winthrop finished at 36 percent while Liberty shot 44 percent. The Lady Eagles, who committed 19 turnovers that led to 22 points for Liberty in the first meeting this season, committed only 10 on the day.

McClanahan's streak of consecutive games scoring 20 or more comes to an end at six games. In addition to her 18 points, McClanahan dished out nine assists and had three steals. She is now five points away from 900 in her career and is seven assists shy of tying the school single-season record as she now has 185 on the year.

Choibekova knocked down seven threes in the game and now has 102 on the year, becoming just the second different player in Big South history to reach 100 in a season. Katie Tull of Charleston Southern did it twice.

Liberty was led by a strong performance from Warley as she recorded her 11^th double-double of the season with 19 points and 15 rebounds. Omotola had 16 points and seven rebounds while Miller and Danika Dale each had eight. Brown only had six points, but dished out a career-high nine assists.

Winthrop will remain at home as it will host a hot Radford Monday evening at 7 p.m. Liberty will head down to Clinton, SC for a 7 p.m. matchup at Presbyterian College Monday.