ROCK HILL, SC--The Winthrop women's basketball team enjoyed its home opener with a 62-39 victory over North Carolina Central on Saturday afternoon behind the double-double performances of Erica Williams and Aliyah Kilpatrick. 

Two things were certain heading into the contest.  A team nicknamed Eagles would win the game and a team would win its first game of the young season.  Winthrop's Eagles are now 1-5 while the NCCU Eagles remain winless with a 0-4 record.

Williams scored a game-high 16 points and pulled down 10 rebounds while Kilpatrick finished with 12 points and 10 rebounds.  Freshman center Arianne Whitaker was also in double figures with 12 points to go along with eight rebounds and three blocked shots.

"I was pleased with the team's performance today," said Winthrop head coach Kevin Cook. "They have persevered through a lot of difficult times here early in the season.  It was nice to play at home and get a victory.  Now we are just going to try to build off this win as we go into conference play and see what it's like to have a little momentum on our side."  Winthrop opens Big South Conference play next Tuesday night when it travels to North Charleston for a meeting with Charleston Southern.

Winthrop got the ball inside to Whitaker and Williams to begin the game and the duo helped get the Eagles out of an early 10-3 lead nearly midway through the first quarter.   NCCU closed the gap to one point after a 3-pointer by Morgan Jones and an old-fashioned three-point play by Tisha Dixon made it 10-9 with 4:49 left in the first quarter. But the visitors were never able to take the lead as Williams answered with back-to-back jumpers and Kilpatrick drilled a 3-pointer from the left wing to give Winthrop a 17-11 lead after one period. 

The Eagles took a 29-21 lead at intermission and stretched the advantage to 41-29 after three quarters.  Winthrop put the game away with a quick start to the fourth quarter as Jimecheia Banks drove the lane to score and Kilpatrick followed with her second trey to give the Eagles a 17-point lead just over a minute into the final period.  The largest lead of the game came with 1:21 remaining after CiiCii Buford's short jumper capped a 14-2 run and put Winthrop up by 27 at 60-33.

Winthrop's defense limited its opponent to just 27 percent shooting from the field (16-60), including 2 of 11 from behind the three-point arc.  The Eagles forced NCCU turnovers and were able to convert those miscues into a 24-11 advantage in points off turnovers.  Winthrop improved on its season shooting performance by connecting on 39 percent from the field (26-67) and knocked down 5 of 14 three-pointers.

"We always preach defense in practice," said Williams. "When we have good energy and use our feet on defense then that helps us to get turnovers and then go down to the other end and score."