Box Score

N. CHARLESTON, SC—Erica Williams recorded a double-double with 19 points and 11 rebounds and Winthrop blistered the nets with 59 percent shooting from the floor to fuel a 79-50 Big South Conference road win over Charleston Southern on Saturday in the Buc Dome.
 
Winthrop improves to 3-0 in Big South play and 7-5 overall as they knocked off CSU for the sixth straight time.  Coach Kevin Cook's squad will now prepare for Gardner-Webb on Monday at 7 p.m. in the Winthrop Coliseum.  CSU, which was playing its first game in 14 days, falls to 3-8 overall and remains winless at 0-3 in the conference.
 
Behind a perfect 8 for 8 accuracy by Williams, Winthrop turned in its best shooting performance of the year as it finished the afternoon connecting on 32 of 54 field goals, including 14 of 18 in the first half when it shot 77 percent to take control of the game.
 
The Eagles also got 19 points from Schaquilla Nunn and a season-high 18 by Samiya Wright.  The two Eagles also shot the ball well as Nunn went 8 of 12 and Wright was 7 of 12 from the floor.  Nunn scored 15 second half points after she was whistled for her second foul and went to the bench after playing only eight minutes in the opening period. A total of 10 Winthrop players got into the scoring column. Williams came within two assists of recording her first triple-double as she finished with eight assists to go along with her 19 points and 11 boards.  The double-double was her fifth this season and 15th of her career.
 
Winthrop's defense held the Bucs to 33 percent shooting (20 for 61) and forced the home team into 21 turnovers that led to 21 Eagle points.  CSU was led in scoring by Tatum Jarvis, who came off the bench to score 17 points.  Alyssa Mann was the only other Buc in double figures with 10 points.
 
The Eagles took charge of the contest early by jumping out to a 21-5 lead in the open 7 minutes, 21 seconds before Charleston Southern had even connected on its first field goal.  Samiya Wright gave Winthrop a 3-0 lead on a three ball just 40 seconds into the game and Mann tied it with three free throws just 30 seconds later, the Eagles ran off 14 unanswered points in four and a half minutes to take a 17-3. Freshman Ezinne Mbamalu scored twice in the lane to start the run while three straight buckets by Williams and a layup by Schaquilla Nunn closed it out.
 
After two free throws by CSU's Natasha Lebedeva stopped the run, Nunn and Wright answered with layups to make it a 21-5 game before Alecia Hardy came off the bench to score the Buc's first field goal, Winthrop led 21-5 with 12:17 left in the first period. Her bucket gave a spurt to the CSU offense as she made two more shots in the paint and Monique Maximillen hit a short jumper to pull the Bucs to within eight points at 21-13 about midway through the half.
 
Jarvis got the Bucs to within seven points when her 3-pointer made it a 25-18 Eagle lead at the 9:43 mark, but that would be a close as CSU could get the rest of the game.  Winthrop led 41-28 at halftime.
 
Maximillen got the Bucs to within 11 as she scored on a follow shot to open the second half, but Winthrop answered quickly with a layup and a three-point play by Nunn to push the advantage up to 16 at 46-30 with just over 18 minutes left in the game.  The Eagles maintained a 14 or 16 point advantage until they jumped it up to 20 with an off-balance jumper and two free throws by Williams to make the score 66-46 with 7 minutes, 19 seconds remaining. 
 
Winthrop closed out the game with a 13-4 run with 12 of those points coming from Wright on a 3-pointer, five from Williams, and the final two from Nunn.