Box Score

KNOXVILLE, TN—The Winthrop women's basketball team fell on the road Friday night to the No. 4 ranked Tennessee Lady Vols, 81-48, in Thompson-Boling Arena as 34 turnovers proved costly.

Winthrop falls to 1-2 on the season while the Lady Vols improve to 3-0.  The Eagles can take solace in the fact they held Tennessee to 13 points below their season average.

Schaquilla Nunn recorded her third straight double-double with 12 points and a game-high 15 rebounds while Erica Williams scored 13 points and Zoe Vernon came off the bench to add 10 points.  Tennessee was led by Ariel Massengale, who scored a game-high 20 points on 6 of 10 shooting from behind the 3-point arc. 

The Eagles led just once in the contest and that came in the first minute when Samiya Wright's 3-pointer gave Winthrop a 3-2 advantage.  Winthrop trailed by only three points at 10-7 following a jumper by Erica Williams at the 15:06 mark, but the Lady Vols went on a 17-0 run to create a comfortable lead at 27-7 at the midway point of the first half.

Massengale, a 5-7 guard, did most of the first half damage as she connected on five straight 3-pointers and had 17 of UT's 40 first half points as the Lady Vols led 40-25 at intermission.

Winthrop head coach Kevin Cook pointed to the five minute stretch during the 17-0 run as a critical part of the game.  "Massengale hit five straight triples and Schaquilla picked up her second foul and I was forced to bring her to the bench.  Those two things combined ended up being the difference in the game.  Schaquilla is a warrior.  She put up 12 and 15 against a potential Final Four team. Just think if she had gotten four or five more minutes on the court if she didn't have to sit with foul trouble," he said.

Cook said he talked to his team in preparing for the game about taking care of the basketball.  "I was really shocked that we turned the ball over that many times (34).  That is very uncharacteristic of our team.  I attribute the turnovers to their length and athleticism, and us just rushing things.  But with that being said, it was a great experience for us and it is going to help us going down the road."

After being down 15 at halftime, Winthrop quickly fell behind by 22 points in the second half as Tennessee scored seven unanswered points when Andraya Carter nailed a 3-pointer to open the scoring and Massengale and Nia Moore followed with layups to make it 47-25 with 17:03 left in the game.  Nunn finally got the Eagles on the board in the second period with a short jumper 30 seconds later to make it a 47-27 game.  The Eagles cut the deficit to 17 with 15:48 remaining when Vernon connected on a trey to make the score 49-32, but from that point on, it was all Tennessee.

The Lady Vols outscored the Eagles 20-7 over the next 10 minutes to extend the margin to 32 points at 71-39. 

Winthrop will travel to Durham, NC next Tuesday night to face NC Central at 6:00 p.m. before returning home to meet another SEC team when Auburn comes into the Winthrop Coliseum for a 1:00 p.m. tip off.