Box Score
ROCK HILL, SC—Erica Williams and Aliyah Kilpatrick combined for 43 points and Winthrop's women snapped a three-game skid as the Eagles knocked off previously unbeaten Big South Conference leader Liberty 63-58 Tuesday night at the Winthrop Coliseum.
 
The Eagle defense played a big role in the win that evened their overall record at 9-9 and improved their league record to 5-4.  For Liberty, it drops their record to 12-6, while they fall to 8-1 in conference play.
 
The win was the 10^th for Winthrop over Liberty and the second in a row.  The Flames still have a commanding 46-10 lead in the series.  The win marks the first time since 1995-96 that Winthrop has defeated Liberty two consecutive times after the semifinal win in the 2014 Big South tournament.
 
"This was a team win," said Winthrop coach Kevin Cook in his postgame press conference.  "All 14 student-athletes deserve to be in here, even those who did not play, because it was a total team effort. "
 
Williams finished with 23 points and Kilpatrick added 20 to lead the Winthrop offense which shot 47 percent for the game on 22 of 47 shots and connected on 57 percent in the second half on 12 of 21 attempts. Kilpatrick did not start the game after missing the two previous contests with a hamstring injury, but she came off the bench to play 36 minutes. 
 
"Coach told us not to play the history of the jersey, but to play the team and that's what we did," said Williams, who also led the Eagles with nine rebounds.  "We never looked at them as Liberty.  We just looked at them as another team and that is what helped us in playing defense and the defense turned into offense."
 
But it was the defense that made the difference in this game.  Liberty was limited to 29.7 from the floor on 22 of 77 shooting.  The Flames missed their final 10 shots and connected on 3 of their final 20 field goals. Schaquilla Nunn, the NCAA's 9^th leading shot blocker heading into the game, had a big part in Liberty's shooting woes as she blocked nine shots and made it difficult for the Flames to score down low. Over the final 9:52 of the game, Liberty was held to 10 points. Winthrop also forced  LU turn the ball over 18 times that resulted in a 23-4 advantage for the Eagles on points off turnovers. 
 
Williams led the Eagles in the first half when she scored 14 of her points, but it was Kilpatrick's second half performance that put Winthrop over the top.  Over the final 9:23 of the game, she scored nine of Winthrop's final 17 points. 
 
The winning margin could have been much greater had Winthrop been able to make its free throws. The Eagles went to the free throw line a season-high 34 times, but converted only 18 compared to 9 of 12 for Liberty.
 
While Liberty owned the boards with a commanding 57-33 advantage, Winthrop overcame that obstacle.  Although the Flames outscored Winthrop 24-6 on second chance points, Liberty was only able to convert about a third of its 32 offensive rebounds into points.
 
Winthrop trailed by its largest deficit of the game at 11-3 just seven minutes into the game, but the turnover bug bit the Flames and the Eagles gained confidence on the offensive end and scored seven points to close to within a point at 11-10 on a three-point play by Williams with 10:29 left in the half.
 
Williams gave the Eagles a brief lead at 18-17 on a 15-foot jumper with 7:11 on the clock, but Liberty responded by outscoring Winthrop 12-4 over the next 4 minutes, 10 seconds to take a 29-22 lead when Simone Brown scored in the paint.
 
Winthrop headed to the locker room down 31-28, but with momentum after Kilpatrick connected on a 3-pointer from the corner and Williams scored on a put back of her own missed shot with 22 seconds left in the period.
 
Winthrop will return home on Saturday when it hosts Presbyterian College at 1 p.m. on Back the Pack Day.  The Eagle men will host Campbell at 4 p.m. in the second game of the doubleheader.