ROCK HILL, SC – The Winthrop women's basketball team battled the Wofford Terriers into overtime Saturday afternoon but ultimately fell 73-68.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Winthrop (1-7) was clinging to a three-point lead with 46 seconds to go in regulation and possessed the ball and a full shot clock.  After running nearly the entire shot clock, Airneisha Gamble drove to the basket but was hit with a charging call with 19 seconds left. 

Wofford (5-4) called a timeout to advance the ball and Emily Ryan fired off a three-point attempt with eight seconds left that was off the mark.  The Terriers secured the rebound and Ryan got a second attempt from the corner and buried the shot with two seconds left.  Winthrop called a timeout but couldn't get a quality attempt and the game headed to overtime.

The Eagles managed only two points in the overtime period, connecting on only one of their eight shot attempts.  Wofford outscored the Eagles 7-2 in overtime for the 73-68 victory.

The first quarter was a back-and-forth battle with the lead changing hands seven different times.  Despite going the final 2:08 of the opening 10 minutes, the Eagles held a 16-15 lead going into the second.  Airneisha Gamble and Anika Riley each tallied six points in the first.

Wofford outscored Winthrop 14-7 in the second quarter as the Eagles again went nearly three minutes at the end of the period without a point.  The Terriers connected on 6-of-15 shots from the field it the second while Winthrop hit only three of their 12 attempts from the field.  Wofford took a 29-23 lead into the break.

The Terriers increased their lead to as much as 10 less than three minutes into the quarter but the Eagles slowly chipped away at the deficit down to two with just under four minutes to play.  After a quick 5-0 spurt by Wofford the Eagles closed the quarter on a 12-4 run to take a 54-53 lead into the final stanza.

After a furious third quarter, the final 10 minutes were much more low-scoring.  Winthrop increased its lead to as much as four in the final five minutes, but couldn't maintain the advantage as the final minute unfolded.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

Four Eagles finished in double-figure scoring with Kayla Brown leading the way with 16 points.  Courtney Hagaman tallied 14 points but fouled out late in the fourth quarter while Anika Riley added 12 and Airneisha Gamble finished with 10.  Riley also recorded her first double-double of the season, finishing with 10 rebounds.

Winthrop had another strong shooting afternoon, connecting on 40 percent of its shots from the field whole Wofford hit 36 of its shots from the floor.  The Eagles narrowly lost the rebounding battle 45-42 and limited their turnovers to only 16 but those miscues still resulted in 19 points for the Terriers.

WHAT'S UP NEXT

Winthrop will have less than 24 hours to recover from today's contest as the Eagles travel to Durham, NC tomorrow to take on the Duke Blue Devils Sunday at 2 p.m.