Box Score
ROCK HILL, SC--Dequesha McClanahan scored a season-high 28 points and Winthropnrolled to a 78-46 Big South Conference victory over Longwood Thursday night at the Winthrop Coliseum.

In a game that was delayed 16 minutes by a power failure in the second half, Winthrop (17-10, 121-4) won its second straight contest and remains tied for second place in the conference.  The Eagles also gained revenge for a Jan. 5 road loss to the Lancers (9-17, 6-9) who have now lost eight in a row.

In one of its most dominating performances of the season, Winthrop came out firing on all cylinders in the first half to take a commanding 44-16 lead as the Eagles connected on 60 percent from the field in the first 20 minutes (18-30).  Winthrop's hot shooting combined with a frigid performance by the Lancers led to the 28-point halftime lead. 

The Eagles were without the services Diana Choibekova, the league's top 3-point shooter, who missed her second straight game with an ankle sprain.  But it didn't matter as Winthrop dominated the paint by outscoring Longwood 40-6 inside.

The Lancers missed their first 17 shots and by the time Erin Neal made Longwood's first field goal on a lay-up with 9:18 left in the period, Winthrop led 23-7.  Longwood closed the half shooting just 16 percent on 5 of 31 field goals. 

Winthrop's first half onslaught was fueled by freshman guard Aliyah Kilpatrick and McClanahan.  Kilpatrick scored 13 points in the opening period and finished the game with 14 while McClanahan had 12 of her 28 in the first half. 

"What people don't realize is that Dequesha most of the time was trying to beat two defenders," said Winthrop head coach Kevin Cook.  "They put a lot of pressure on her and she handled it like a champion.  She is just thinking the game so very well, and she was pressed to play the entire 40 minutes because we had no one else to put in."

A basket by Kilpatrick gave Winthrop its first 20-point lead at 27-7 with 6:08 left in the period.  A Schaquilla Nunn layup, a 3-pointer and another layup by Kilpatrick and a jumper by McClanahan gave the Eagles a 36-9 lead with 3:46 left. 

The only low moment for Winthrop in the first half came with 2:16 left before intermission when sophomore guard Samiya Wright fell hard to the floor after being fouled and had to leave the game with a wrist injury.  She did not return to action.

"It's that time of the year when everybody is banged up and we 've just got to get our players healthy, but it's a quick turnaround.  A very solid Radford team is coming in here.  With the blackout, I was just hoping we wouldn't see a 49ers comeback," said Cook, referring to the Super Dome power failure.

Longwood came out in the second half to get to within 21 points on a 3-pointer by the Lancer's leading scorer Crystal Smith that made it a 50-29 game with 13:37 left, following the delay,  but McClanahan led a 12-3 run to run the lead up to 30 points at 62-32.  McClanahan scored 8 of Winthrop's points during the run. 

Winthrop built its largest lead of the game to 36 points when Tiffany Charles made a steal and length of the court drive to give the Eagles a 78-42 advantage.

Nunn also finished in double figures for Winthrop as she scored 11 points to go along with eight rebounds and Taylor Calvert pulled down 12 boards to lead everyone.  The Eagles also got big lifts off the bench from junior guard Tiffany Charles who scored eight points and dished out three assists and Christinia Solmon who finished with six points and grabbed five rebounds in 12 minutes of action. 

"Solmon was very efficient tonight," said Cook.  "She is an excellent athlete and is a great member of the team in that she never complains and she comes to work each and every day.  I've told her again and again that I believe she is going to help us down the stretch."

For the game, Winthrop shot 46.9 percent (30-64) and held Longwood to just 24.2 percent (15-62).  The Eagles also dominated the boards 53-35.

Winthrop will be back in action on Saturday when it hosts Radford at 1 p.m. in the first game of a doubleheader prior to the men's BracketBuster game against Southeastern Louisiana.