Box Score

ROCK HILL, SC—Winthrop's trio of Erica Williams, Aliyah Kilpatrick and Schaquilla Nunn combined for 62 points to lead the Eagles to a 91-74 Big South Conference victory over visiting High Point and a split of the regular season series on Tuesday night at the Winthrop Coliseum.
 
Williams scored a team-high 24 points while Kilpatrick finished with 20 and recorded her first career double-double as she grabbed 11 rebounds.  Nunn also had a double-double, her 11^th of the season and 38^th of her career, with 18 points and 12 rebounds.
 
The win, which reverses a 26-point loss a month ago at High Point, improves Winthrop to 10-5 in the Big South and 14-10 overall while HPU is now 11-5 and 15-10. 
 
The Eagles finished the game shooting 52 percent as they connected on 37 of 71 field goals.  Defensively, Winthrop limited the Big South's best shooting team to 39 percent (24 of 62).  High Point came into the game shooting 42 percent as a team.
 
Another key factor in the game was in the rebounding department where Winthrop won the battle of the boards 47-36 after being outrebounded by 13 in the first meeting at High Point. 
 
"We played outstanding team basketball," said Winthrop head coach Kevin Cook.  "We were locked in, and had been locked in since Monday's practice.  Defensively, even though we gave up 74 points, they were hard-earned and we made them work for those points.  High Point is a very good ball club and are well coached.  I told our team to enjoy this game until midnight, then we've got to get ready for our game on Saturday."
 
After taking a 45-35 lead to the locker room at intermission, Winthrop came out in the second half and withstood an opening push by the Panthers to trim their deficit to six points at 47-41 following a 15 foot jumper by Latrice Phelps, who led all scorers in the game with 25 points.  High Point's cause was hurt when preseason Big South Player of the Year Kaylah Keys was whistled for two quick fouls in the opening 76 seconds and she had to take a seat on the bench.
 
Without Keys, who was held to five points on one of 9 shooting, Winthrop outscored HPU 8-0 to take a 55-41 lead on two free throws by Taylor Calvert at the 16:25 mark. 
 
The closest that High Point got after that was nine points when Phelps connected on a 16-footer to make it a 65-56 game with 9:21 remaining.  Winthrop responded with a 15-5 run over the next 3 minutes, 40 seconds to go up by 17 points at 78-61 on Samiya Wright's layup at the 5:41 mark.
 
Winthrop's largest lead came with just over a minute left to play when Kilpatrick's layup made it a 89-69 game.
 
Winthrop opened the game with a quick 4-0 lead in the first 44 seconds on a layup by Williams followed by an inside move by Nunn.  A layup by Phelps and two free throws 24 seconds later knotted the game at 4-4. 
 
After Williams put Winthrop up 6-4 and Robertson tied things at 6 apiece on a layup with 16:45 left in the period, Winthrop outscored the Panthers 7-0 and 11-5 over the next 3 minutes, 34 seconds to go up 17-11 with 13:01 on the clock. Nunn started the run with a layup followed by a 10 foot jumper by Williams to make it 10-6.  Wright then put back an offensive rebound and was fouled.  She made the free throw to put the Eagles up 13-6. 
 
High Point cut the deficit to a single point at 23-22 at the 7:24 mark as Phelps and Robertson went to work inside to score eight of the Panthers' next 11 points.
 
With Winthrop leading 29-26 after a 12 footer by Phelps, the Eagles got the ball inside to Nunn for a nice left handed hook in the lane for a 31-26 lead.  High Point head coach DeUnna Hendrix was whistled for a technical and Wright went to the line and knocked down two free throws to put the Eagles up by seven at 33-26 with 4:26 left in the period.
 
The lead went to nine after back-to-back baskets by Williams that gave Winthrop its first nine-point lead at 37-28 at the 3:06 mark.   Winthrop maintained that nine point advantage for the next three-plus minutes and took a 45-35 halftime lead on a 12 footer by Nunn with 19 ticks left on the first half clock.
 
Winthrop will return to action on Saturday when the Eagles travel to Boiling Springs, NC where they will face Gardner-Webb at 3 p.m. in Paul Porter Arena.  Winthrop will try to get even for a 79-65 home loss to GWU back on Jan. 5.