ROCK HILL SC—Playing without its top two scorers on the season, the Winthrop women fell to league-leading UNC Asheville 67-59 on Tuesday night at The Winthrop Coliseum.
 
Erica Williams, the leading scorer in the Big South and point guard Aliyah Kilpatrick were sidelined with injuries.  They are averaging a combined 30 points this season.
 
After trailing by 16 points at halftime, the Eagles outscored Asheville 31-23 in the second half behind the play of sophomore twin sisters Naima and Nuba Jackson and freshman center Arianne Whitaker, who had missed the last seven games due to a concussion.  All three players had career highs, but it wasn't enough to offset the balanced scoring attack of the Bulldogs who placed four players in double figures.
 
Winthrop falls to 3-18 overall and 2-10 in the Big South while Asheville improves to 17-4 and 10-2 in the league. 
 
Naima Jackson led Winthrop with 21 points while Whitaker finished with 15 to go along with nine rebounds to tie teammate Ronata Rogers for game-high honors.  Nuba Jackson had nine points.
Asheville was led by Tianna Knuckles and Chatori Major with 14 points each while Khalia Webb scored 12 and Bronaza Fitzgerald added 10. 
 
Asheville jumped out to an early 15-6 lead as it connected on six of its first seven shots in the opening four minutes.  Winthrop answered with a 9-0 run to tie the score at 15-15 on back-to-back 3-pointers by CiiCii Buford with 4:05 left in the first quarter, but the Bulldogs closed out the half with a 7-2 run, including a 3-pointer by Major to take a 22-17 lead after one period.
 
Asheville took control of the game with an 18-6 run to begin the second quarter.  The Bulldogs took 40-23 lead with 3:54 left in the first half on a layup by Sonora Dengokl.  She added two free throws with 2:32 remaining to make it a 44-28 Bulldog advantage at intermission.
 
The Bulldogs built its lead by taking advantage of a 13-4 advantage on second chance points and an 18-10 advantage in the paint.
 
The second half was a different matter as Winthrop outscored Asheville 8-5 on second chance points and 16-2 in the paint.
 
After Webb gave Asheville its largest lead of 19 at 47-28 with a 10-foot baseline jumper with 8:26 left in the third quarter, Winthrop went on an 11-2 run during a 4 minute and 27 second time span.  Naima Jackson started the run with one of her career-high three 3-pointers and Whitaker had an old-fashion three-point play and a 15-foot jumper to make it a 49-39 game with 3:34 left in the quarter.  Asheville's Major ended the run with a 3-pointer and the Bulldogs took a 56-43 lead into the fourth quarter. 
 
Winthrop, which was down to just six players dressed out for the game, continued to battle until the final horn and outscored Asheville 16-11 in the fourth quarter.  Naima Jackson had half of Winthrop's points in the final period. 
 
Winthrop finished the game with its second best shooting performance of the season as the Eagles connected on 43 percent from the floor (24-56) and made a season-high five 3-pointers.  After its hot start, Asheville cooled off in the second half, making just 5 of 27 field goals and finished the game at 36 percent (23 of 64).  The Bulldogs did connect on 9 of 30 from behind the arc and were 12 of 21 from the free throw line compared to Winthrop's 5 for 15 on three balls and 6 of 8 from the charity stripe.
 
The Eagles will be back in action on Saturday when they travel to Gardner-Webb for a 2 p.m. contest.