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ROCK HILL, SC---Diana Choibekova and Dequesha McClanahan combined to score 64 points to lead Winthrop to a 100-56 Big South Conference victory over UNC Asheville Saturday afternoon at the Winthrop Coliseum.

Senior Days are always memorable occasions, but Choibekova made her final home game a special one as she tied her careef highs with 33 points and 10 three-pointers.  Her final 3-pointer came with 39 seconds remaining gave the Eagles their first-ever 100 point game in conference play.

"This is a great win for the program and for these young ladies," said Winthrop head coach Kevin Cook.  "They have set the mark for most conference wins ever and we reached 20 wins which was a preseason goal."

McClanahan finished with a season-high 31 points to vault her into second place on the Winthrop career scoring list.  She has now scored 1,634 and needs 66 more points to take over the all-time lead. 

Freshman center Schaquilla Nunn earned her 14th double-double of the year with 10 points and a game-high 12 rebounds to goa long with five blocked shots while freshman guard Aliyah Kilpatrick finished with 15 points  and five steals.

UNC Asheville (2-27, 0-18) was led by Gentry Manley with 20 points and nine rebounds while Grace Blaylock added 11 points for the Bulldogs.

"I don't believe Asheville played that poorly, but it was just that we played pretty good," said the Winthrop coach.  "We just shot the ball very, very well throughout the entire game today and that gives us some momentum going into the Big South tournament."

The win is also an important one for Winthrop (20-10, 14-4) as it ties the school's victory total of 20 since it became a NCAA Division I member in 1978-79 and it also clinches the No. 2 seed in next week's Big South Conference Championship Tournament in Conway, SC.

"For this team and this staff, it feels like the season is just beginning," said Cook.  "We are going to try and take this season and keep on playing just as long as we can." 

The second place seed assures Winthrop of a post-season opportunity, either in the NCAA as an automatic qualifier if it can win the Big South tournament, or in the WNIT.  The Eagle women's program has made just one other post-season appearance since becoming a NCAA member with that coming in 2007-08 in the WNIT

Choibekova connected on five of her first seven 3-pointers in the opening seven minutes and 53 seconds of the game and had scored 16 of her points as Winthrop jumped on Asheville for a 23-11 lead at the 12:07 mark.

Back-to-back triples by Kilpatrick and Choibekova ran the lead to twenty at 35-15 with 7:50 remaining in the first half.  McClanahan gave Winthrop its largest lead at 49-21 on a 15 foot baseline jumper with 1:09 remaining and the Eagles went to halftime with a 50-24 lead.

Winthrop took its first 30-point lead  on a rebound and follow  shot by Choibekova to make it a 64-31 advantage with 16:13 remaining.  Back-to-back layups by Kilpatrick followed by another trey by Choibekova pushed the lead to 43 at 87-44 with just over six minutes remaining.

The Eagles scored 11 points in the final two minutes on a 3-pointer by McClanahan, a couple more three balls from Choibekova and a follow shot by Tiffany Charles to hit the century mark.

Winthrop finished the game shooting 52.7 percent (39-74) and was even better from long distance connecting on 53.8 percent (14-26).  Choibekova was 10 of 19 from behind the arc.  Asheville shot 39.3 percent for the game (22-56).

The Eagles also won the rebound battle 40-30.