Box Score

RADFORD, VA—The Winthrop women's basketball team, playing without its starting point guard Aliyah Kilpatrick, fell on the road to Big South Conference foe Radford 55-47 on Tuesday night at the Dedmon Center.

Winthrop's second straight loss drops the Eagles to 8-8 on the season and 4-3 in the league.  Radford won its fifth straight game to improve to 8-8 overall and 5-2 in conference play.  The loss also snapped Winthrop's three-game win streak over the Highlanders, who now lead the all-time series 54-15. 

Kilpatrick is nursing a hamstring injury and was not available to play.  Schaquilla Nunn did her best to keep the Eagles in the game as she recorded her seventh double-double of the season with 24 points and 16 rebounds while blocking six shots.  She was the only Winthrop player to reach double figures.  The team's leading scorer, Erica Williams, had five points as she struggled with her shooting, finishing just 2 for 17 from the floor.  She was not on the floor for the final 10 minutes. 

For the second straight game, Winthrop as a team did not shoot well.  The Eagles shot 28.4 percent for the game (19 of 67) compared to 36.2 percent (21-58) for the Highlanders.  The difference in the game was Radford's outside shooting as it connected on 6 of 13 three balls while Winthrop was 1 for 7.

Winthrop trailed 28-27 at halftime, but opened the second half with a 8-2 run with Nunn going to work in the paint for six of those points to give  the Eagles their largest lead of the game at 35-30 lead with 15:26 remaining.  But following a timeout by Radford, the Highlanders responded with a 13-0 run over a 4 minute, 17 second span to go up 43-35 with 9:01 left to play.

RU still led by eight points at 45-37 with 7:39 on the clock when Nunn and Pamela Decheva led a 8-2 charge that cut the deficit to two points at 47-45 with 2:54 remaining.  Decheva scored on a short turnaround jumper to start the rally.  Nunn converted three of four free throws and made three free throws after being fouled on a 3-point attempt. 

Radford answered with a consecutive layups by Kiera McIvor and Avery to shut the door on Winthrop which never got closer than four points in the final 2:40.

Winthrop fell behind early in the game by a 16-7 deficit  with just over eight minutes having elapsed, but the Eagles responded with a 9-0 run to draw even at 16-16 with five of the points coming from Nunn.

Radford quickly regained the lead on a 3-pointer by Aisha Foy and a layup by Jayda Worthy to put the Highlanders up by 21-16 at the 8:01 mark.  Winthrop scored five straight points to take its only lead of the first half.  A left handed hook in the lane by Nunn made it a 23-21 game with 3:50 remaining, but once again RU responded on a floater by Foy and a follow by Ayana Avery to retake the lead.  Following another layup by Nunn to knot the score at 25-25, Avery connected for Radford's fifth 3-pointer of the half to reclaim the lead.  Nunn closed out the scoring with another layup with one minute left in the period.

"Our effort was tremendous, to say the least.  Our man defense did a good job and when you hold a team to 55 points, you should win," said Winthrop coach Kevin Cook.  "We've got to find a way to be more cohesive on the offensive end.  It was a tough loss."

Winthrop will close out its three-game road swing on Saturday when the Eagles travel to Conway, SC to take on Coastal Carolina at 2 p.m.