Box Score

AKRON, OH—The Winthrop women's basketball team connected on just 55 percent of its free throws and got outrebounded by 17 as the Eagles fell to the host Akron Zips in the first game of the Akron Classic on Friday morning at the James A. Rhodes Arena.
 
The loss drops the Eagles to 0-3 while Akron evened its record at 1-1 to take a 2-0 lead in the all-time series.
 
Junior forward Erica Williams led all scorers with a season-best 21 points and junior guard Aliyah Kilpatrick finished with a season-high 15 points and eight rebounds to lead Winthrop.  But their performances were overshadowed by Akron's senior guard Anita Brown who collected a double-double with 15 points and 13 rebounds.  Greta Burry nearly had a double-double with a team-high 16 points and nine boards.
 
Akron's 20 to 11 advantage in made free throws and its 62-45 advantage on the glass proved costly for Winthrop.  The Zips pulled down 22 offensive rebounds which led to a 21-10 advantage in second chance points.
 
"I was very disappointed.  We came out of the first half down six and we just didn't meet Akron's energy.  They continued to rip it up and down the court.  We didn't get back on defense and we gave up way too many offensive rebounds," said Winthrop head coach Kevin Cook.  "That's something we have got to continue to work on.  We've got to be ready to battle.  We have another game tomorrow and we need to regroup and hopefully shoot the ball better tomorrow."
 
Winthrop will face Ohio University at 1 p.m. on Saturday.  The Bobcats have been picked to finish second in the Mid-American Conference.
 
Winthrop shot just 30.7 percent from the floor (23-75), including 2 for 19 from behind the 3-point arc, and were 11 of 20 from the free throw stripe (55 percent).  Akron's overall field goal shooting wasn't a whole lot better (34.7 percent on 25 of 72), but the Zips connected on 6 of 19 three-pointers and converted 20 of 28 free throws (71.4 percent). 
 
Both teams got off to a slow start before the Zips went on an 8-2 run to close the first quarter to lead 20-14.  Lauren Hung came off the bench in the last two minutes of the period to nail back-to-back 3-pointers to give Akron the lead.
 
Winthrop's last lead came on a coast-to-coast layup by Aliyah Kilpatrick put the Eagles up 10-9 with just over three minutes left in the first quarter.  Another Kilpatrick layup with 1:49 left tied the game at 12-12 before Akron opened a bit of breathing room.
 
The Eagles fell behind by 13 in the second quarter at 29-16 on a pair of free throws by Megan Barilla, but managed to outscore the Zips 16-9 over the final 6:45 of the period to remain six points down at 38-32 to end the first half. 
 
Akron outscored Winthrop 27-9 in the third quarter to put the game away.  The Zips led by as much as 24 points on two occasions at 65-41 to end the third period and again with just under six minutes left when Hung connected on her third 3-pointer to make it 70-46.  Akron played its reserves for most of the final minutes as Winthrop closed the gap by outscoring the Zips 13-6 in the last 5:47 of the game.