ROCK HILL SC—With only eight players available because of injuries, the Winthrop women's basketball team battled valiantly on Tuesday night, but fell victim to Presbyterian College by a 59-48 score at the Winthrop Coliseum.
 
The loss was the seventh in a row for Winthrop as the Eagles' season record falls to 2-13 and 1-5 in Big South action.  PC won for the fifth time in its last six games to improve to 9-7 overall and 5-2 in the conference.
 
Erica Williams led all scorers with 17 and Aliyah Kilpatrick added 14, but those efforts were not near enough to offset the three-point shooting by the Blue Hose who made 7 of 24 for the game compared to 3 of 12 for the Eagles.  PC placed three players in double figures, led by Allie Wagner with 11 while Rebecca Walker and Janie Miles finished with 10 points each.
 
Kilpatrick, considered one of the top perimeter defenders in the conference, reached a career milestone when she came up with her 200^th steal in the first quarter.  The Eagles were without the services of sophomore point guard Jimecheia Banks, who is lost for the season after suffering a broken ankle last Saturday at Radford, and freshman center Arianne Whitaker, who is out with a concussion.
 
Winthrop took an early 4-0 lead on back-to-back jumpers by Naima Jackson and Kilpatrick, but Presbyterian responded with a 12-0 run to go ahead 12-4 with 3:46 remaining in the first quarter.  The Eagles trailed 18-9 at the end of the first period and scored the first five points of the second quarter to get to within four points after Ronata Rogers scored on a layup and Williams made an old fashioned three-point play after blocking a Blue Hose shot and taking the ball three-quarters of the court to make a layup and then a free throw.
 
The four-point deficit was as close as Winthrop could get the rest of the game.  Just as they did in the opening quarter, PC responded with a 10-0 run in just over five minutes to take its largest lead of the game at 28-14.  Kilpatrick knocked down a 18-footer and Ezinne Mbamalu scored on a follow shot to make it a 10-point game at halftime.
 
Winthrop remained 10 points behind after three quarters and made its final run early in the fourth quarter as Nuba Jackson connected on a 15 foot jumper from the free throw line and Williams connected on a contested baseline jumper and hit a free throw after being fouled to make it a five-point game at 41-36 with 6:09 remaining.
"At halftime, we asked the team to battle and our man defense was working well for us and we were able to cut the deficit to five after Aliyah went out with leg cramps.  But when we needed stops, our best defender was cramping up," said Winthrop head coach Kevin Cook.
 
PC responded this time with a 3-pointer by Cortney Storey that seemed to take the air out of Winthrop's comeback attempt.  After Williams made a short jumper to make it a 44-38 game, Janie Miles drilled a 3-pointer to start a 10-2 run and the Blue Hose regained its 14-point lead at 54-40 with 2:43 left in the game.
 
"Credit PC for stepping up and hitting two big threes that broke our back," said Cook.
 
Winthrop shot 32.8 percent for the game (20 of 61) as it matched PC on total field goals (20-51, 39 pct.), but the difference came from beyond the arc where the Blue Hose made four more than the Eagles.
 
The Eagles will return to action on Saturday when they travel to Lynchburg, VA, to take on Liberty, the preseason Big South favorite, at 2 p.m. in the Vines Center.  The Lady Flames are 5-2 in the league and have been without  Ashley Rininger, the preseason player of the year, who has a knee injury.