Box Score

ROCK HILL, SC—Gardner-Webb outscored Winthrop's women by 19 points from the free throw line and manhandled the Eagles on the boards to claim a 75-62 come-from-behind Big South Conference win and earn a season sweep on Saturday afternoon at Paul Porter Arena.

GWU, which never led in the first 25 minutes of the game and trailed by as many as 10 points in the first half, outscored Winthrop 36-17 over the final 15 minutes of the game.  The loss ends Winthrop's brief  two-game winning streak and drops the Eagles to 10-6 in Big South play and 14-11 overall.  Gardner-Webb improves to 8-9 in the league and 12-14.

Aliyah Kilpatrick led Winthrop with 18 points and also dished out six assists and made five steals before fouling out with two minutes left in the game.  Erica Williams added 14 points while freshman Ezinne Mbamalu scored 10, with all of them coming in the first half.

Gardner-Webb's Jessica Heilig was the game's high scorer as she finished with 22 on the day she was honored for scoring 1,000 career points.  Heilig converted 10 of 14 free throws for the Bulldogs, who connected on 34 of 41 as a team. Olivia Parker, who scored GWU's first eight points of the game had 19 as she was 7 of 9 from the charity stripe.  Winthrop made 15 of 23 free throws on the day.

The Bulldogs took advantage of Schaquilla Nunn's early foul trouble to outrebound Winthrop 50-26.  Nunn, who was the conference's leading rebounder going into the game, was whistled for two fouls in the opening 80 seconds of the game and sat out the last 18 minutes of the first half.  She was held to five points and three rebounds in the second half.

Winthrop led 37-31 at halftime primarily due to the play of freshman Ezinne Mbamalu, who came off the bench to score 10 points and grab five rebounds in 18 minutes as she replaced Nunn.  Mbamalu played four minutes in the second half without scoring.

With the Eagles holding onto a 22-19 lead, Mbamalu scored six straight points in just 31 seconds to give Winthrop a nine point lead at 28-19 with 5:25 remaining in the first half.  The Eagles extended the lead to 10 on back-to-back baskets by Kilpatrick who nailed a 17 foot jumper at the 4:10 mark and followed that with a layup 24 seconds later.  The Eagles still led by 10 after Samiya Wright's fast break layup made it a 37-27 game with 1:08 left. 
  
The complexion of the game changed dramatically after Williams put the Eagles up by six points at 45-39 with 14 minutes, 59 seconds left to play.  Parker's jumper drew the Bulldogs to within four and sparked a 13-6 run over the next five minutes as GWU took its first lead of the game at 52-51 on a layup by Heilig with 9:42 left.   The Bulldogs increased its advantage to 11 on a Parker layup with just over three minutes remaining that put GWU up 66-55 and capped a 31-12 run.

Winthrop will return to action next Tuesday night when the Eagles host Radford at 7 p.m. on Play4Kay Night.  All fans who wear pink will be admitted free to the game and donations will be accepted at the door for the Kay Yow Cancer Fund.  Yow was the longtime head coach at North Carolina State before succumbing to cancer in 2009.