ROCK HILL SC—The Winthrop women's basketball team made a valiant fourth quarter comeback that fell just short in a 63-60 Big South Conference home loss to Longwood on Saturday afternoon.
 
The loss was the fifth in a row for the Eagles and drops their record to 2-11 overall and 1-3 in the conference.  Longwood won its first road game of the season as well as its first Big South contest and improves to 4-9 overall and 1-3 in the league.
 
Junior guard Aliyah Kilpatrick led all scorers in the game with 21 while sophomore guard Jimecheia Banks added a career-high 13 to lead Winthrop's offense.  The Eagles also got career-high rebound performances from freshman center Arianne Whitaker who grabbed 14 and also had a career-high eight blocked shots, and sophomore Ronata Rogers who had 15 rebounds.
 
Longwood had a balanced offensive effort as nine players got into the scoring column with Deborah Headen leading the Lancers with 12 while Kyndal Skersick finished with 11.
 
The game came down to the free throw line where Longwood converted 11 of 17 while Winthrop continued to struggle from the charity stripe by making only 6 of 15. 
 
"We lost this game at the line and by making too many unforced turnovers," said Winthrop head coach Kevin Cook.  The Eagles committed 20 turnovers that led to 22 Longwood points, but it was turnovers committed by the Lancers in the fourth quarter that almost led to a Winthrop comeback victory. 
 
After falling behind by 13 points at 54-41 to end the third quarter, Winthrop, behind the defensive effort of Kilpatrick, made a furious comeback as the Eagles closed to within two points at 58-56 with 2:48 left in the game.  Longwood led 56-45 following a layup by Kyndal Skersick with 8:53 remaining when Winthrop made its move.  Kilpatrick almost spearheaded the comeback by herself as she made four fourth quarter steals that led to 11 points.  
 
Winthrop used an early 12-2 run to open the game as Banks drilled two 3-pointers, Rogers scored on two short jumpers and Kilpatrick made one of her patented steals that led to a layup.  But Longwood withstood that run and outscored the Eagles 14-8 to close the quarter trailing 20-16.  The Lancers tied the game at 20 to baskets by Daeisha Brown and Ashlee Jones to open the second quarter.
 
Winthrop responded with a 9-2 run to up 29-22 with 5:02 left in the quarter on a layup by Rogers, but at that point in the game Longwood began to battle back.  The Lancers took control of the game in the final five minutes of the second quarter by outscoring Winthrop 12-2 to take a 34-31 halftime lead. 
 
Winthrop, which was never able to tie or take the lead in the second half, trailed by a single point at 40-39 with 4:39 left in the third quarter on a jumper by Ezinne Mbamalu, but Longwood responded with a 14-2 run over the final 3:50 of the period to grab its 54-41 lead at the close of the period.
 
Winthrop will now have a week off to prepare for a Jan. 9 game at Radford.  Junior forward Erica Williams, who has missed the last two games due to a bone bruise to her left foot, is still day-to-day.  Cook is hoping they can get her back soon as she leads the Eagles in scoring and ranks third in the conference with her 15.0 points per game average.