GREENVILLE, SC—The Winthrop women's basketball team fell victim to the three-point shot once again, falling to Furman 71-52 Tuesday night in Timmons Arena.
 
The Paladins ran out to a 15-point halftime lead after knocking down 9 of 17 three-point field goals.  They finished the game with 14 treys in 31 attempts and shot 41 percent overall from the field (24-59). Winthrop, on the other hand, had trouble connecting on any kind of shot in the game as they hit just 26 percent from the floor (19-73), including 3 of 19 from beyond the arc.
 
The Eagles remain winless with a 0-5 record, becoming the ninth team in the program's 47-year history to start out the season with five or more losses.  Winthrop will look to get on the winning track this Saturday when the Eagles host North Carolina Central at 1
p.m.
 
Furman guard Whitney Bunn scored a career-high 27 points and was the story of the game for the Paladins.  She was the main reason Furman was able to jump out to a 41-26 halftime lead as she connected on four of her six 3-pointers during the first two quarters.  Bunn made 10 of 15 shots overall and was 6 for 9 from behind the arc. Cierra Carter also had her career-high as she finished with 17 points as was 6 of 10 from the floor.
 
Winthrop was led in scoring by Erica Williams and Aliyah Kilpatrick.  Williams scored 12 points to extend her streak of double figure games to 19 dating back to last season while Kilpatrick finished with 10.
 
"I told the team they battled hard in the third and fourth quarters and were only outscored by four, but you can't dig that big a hole and expect to come back," said Winthrop head coach Kevin Cook.  "The effort was there in the second half, but we've just got to put it together for four quarters."
 
Winthrop did make a run in the third quarter to cut the deficit to eight when Aliyah Kilpatrick grabbed a missed free throw, made an over-the-head shot and completed the three-point play to make it a 48-40 game with 4:14 left in the period, but the Eagles did not score for the remainder of the quarter.  Meanwhile, Kelsey Ellis and Bunn nailed 3-pointers in the final 2:29 to give Furman a 54-40 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
 
The Eagles were able to cut the lead down to ten points at 60-50 following a three-point play by CiiCii Buford with 3:32 remaining in the game, but Winthrop did not get a field goal down the stretch while it was outscored 11-2 by the Paladins.
 
One bright spot for the Eagles was their work on the glass as they out-rebounded Furman 52-42 with half of that total coming on the offensive end where Winthrop had a 15-8 advantage on second chance points.