Box Score

ROCK HILL, SC—The Winthrop women's shooting woes continued on Saturday as the Eagles tied a school record for fewest points in a half as they dropped a 66-20 decision to Wichita State in the WSU Winter Classic.

Winthrop (5-5) scored just eight first half points on 4 of 28 shooting and trailed Wichita State (8-3) 30-8 at intermission. The eight points equaled the previous low in the program's history which was recorded against Southern Poly on Dec. 12, 2010.  The eight points was an all-time low for the first half of a game, breaking the previous mark of 10 at North Carolina on Jan. 6, 2005.

After connecting on just 4 of 28 field goal attempts in the first half, Winthrop saw its early shots in the second half go down before the shooting doldrums took over again. After connecting on six of its first 16 shots in the final period to trail 41-20 following a short jumper by Erica Williams with 12:05 remaining in the game, Winthrop did not score again and missed its final 14 shots.  Winthrop shot just 17.2 percent for the game (10 of 58) and finished the contest with more turnovers (21) than points.

Shocker sophomore forward Alie Decker outscored the Eagles single-handedly as she finished the game with a career-high 31 points and connected on 9 of 14 three-point field goals.  Winthrop did not have a player reach double figures.  The Eagles were led by Williams and Schaquilla Nunn with eight points each.

"It wasn't our effort today," said Winthrop head coach Kevin Cook, who was disappointed with his team after its loss on Friday to George Mason. "Today it was Wichita State. There is a reason why they went into Tennessee and lost by only three.  Wichita State has the toughest defense we've played in my three years at Winthrop. They made it very difficult for us to get anything going offensively. This is a program that came within a whisker of winning a first round game in the NCAA tournament last year and they have an excellent chance of doing that this year."

The Eagles had more turnovers that points in the first half and shot just 14 percent on 4 of 28 shot attempts.  Winthrop finished the half by shooting one of 15 from the floor.  Two long scoring droughts did in the Eagles in the opening period.  After Erica Williams scored on a short jumper at the 15:32 mark, Winthrop trailed 5-4, but went six minutes and 24 seconds before Williams scored again.  By that time, the Eagles trailed 16-6.  The second drought was even longer as Winthrop went 7:21 before Nunn scored inside the paint to make it a 27-8 game. 

This game completes the non-conference portion of the schedule for Winthrop.  The Eagles will now turn their full attention to the Big South Conference race which resumes Dec. 30 when Winthrop hosts Longwood at 7:00 p.m.  All kids will be admitted to that game for free while adult tickets are priced at $2.00 for the holiday special.