NORTH CHARLESTON, SC—Winthrop gave up a halftime lead and fell behind by 13 points before a furious comeback in the final three minutes came up short in a 54-51 Big South Conference opening loss to Charleston Southern on Tuesday night in the Buc Dome.
                                     
The loss snapped Winthrop's seven-game win streak over CSU and drops Winthrop to 1-6 overall while Charleston Southern won its fifth home game without a loss and improves to 5-2. 
 
Winthrop led 28-18 with just under a minute left in the first half, but back-to-back pull up jumpers for CSU's Ke'Asia Jackson pulled the Buccaneers to within six at intermission at 28-22.  Winthrop closed the first half by missing its last seven field goals and the shooting only got worse in the second half.
 
The Eagles failed to make a field goal the entire third quarter as they went 0 for 17 from the floor.  Winthrop was outscored 15-5 in the period and fell behind 37-33 heading into the final period.  CSU increased its margin to as many as 13 points when Monique Maximillen's layup made it a 50-37 game with 3:56 remaining.    
 
That basket was the last in the game for the Bucs who made four of six free throws in the final 21 seconds to hold off Winthrop's comeback attempt.  Naima Jackson got Winthrop to within two points at 53-51 with a pair of free throws with five seconds left, but CSU's Jackson, who scored a career-high 22 points, make one of two free throws with four seconds left to help seal the victory.
 
According to Winthrop head coach Kevin Cook, his team played too cautiously in the third quarter and then finally loosened up in the final three minutes to make it a ball game.  "We should have never been in that situation." 
 
"When you hold a team to 54, you should win the game," said Winthrop head coach Kevin Cook, "but man-o-man sometimes it's like going to the dentist with us on offense. To put it very mildly, you are not going to win many games shooting 30 percent and going 0 for 9 from behind the arc."
 
Both teams shot identically from the floor going 18 of 60, but CSU was able to connect on five 3-pointers in 24 attempts to gain the advantage.
 
Winthrop was led by Erica Williams who collected her second straight double-double with 19 points and 10 rebounds.
 
 
 
 
Winthrop jumped out of a 14-6 lead after one quarter as the Eagle defense limited CSU to 2 of 17 shooting in the period, including no field goals in 14 attempts over the final 7:25. 
 
Winthrop will return home on Saturday when it will host Big South foe Gardner-Webb at 1:00 p.m. in the first game of a doubleheader with the Eagle men.