ROCK HILL, SC— Gardner-Webb's women opened the game with an 11-1 run and went on to an 89-54 Big South Conference victory over Winthrop on Tuesday night.
The Bulldogs connected on 12 three-pointers in the game and capitalized on 24 Eagle turnovers that resulted in a 32-7 advantage in points off turnovers. Those two numbers proved too much for Winthrop to overcome.
Winthrop falls to 2-19 overall and 1-8 in conference play while GWU improves to 9-11 (4-5 BSC).
Erica Williams led Winthrop with 19 points and nine rebounds while
Danyael Goodhope finished with 11 points, including nine in the fourth quarter. Gardner-Webb placed four players in double figures with Tierra Huntsman leading the way with 24. She connected on nine of 13 field goals, including a five for eight performance from behind the 3-point arc. Morgan Ackerman finished with 13 as she made four of 11 from long distance. Evelyn Adebayo had 11 along with nine rebounds, and Ky'Asia Stanford added 10.
Gardner-Webb opened up a 15-3 lead in the opening 4 minutes, 14 seconds of the game with 10 of those coming off Eagle turnovers. Winthrop closed out the first quarter by outscoring GWU 11-8 to trail 23-14 after the first 10 minutes despite five of 11 shooting from behind the arc by the Bulldogs.
Winthrop used a 12-0 run that spanned the first and second quarters to close within four points at 25-21 following two free throws by Williams with 5:47 left in the first half. GWU responded with a 11-0 run of its own as Winthrop went scoreless over the final five minutes of the quarter and trailed 36-25 at intermission.
Gardner-Webb put the game out of reach with an 11-0 run to open the third quarter and took a 22-point lead at 47-25 with 7:52 remaining in the period. Huntsman did the damage with two more threes.
GWU connected on 13 of 20 field goal attempts in the third quarter to take a commanding 68-35 lead heading into the final period. The largest lead was 39 with 2:15 left following an Adebayo free throw.
Winthrop will travel to Radford on Saturday for a 2 p.m. game.