ROCK HILL, SC—Erica Williams scored a team-high 21 points and moved into second place on the all-time Winthrop women's scoring list, but the Eagles struggled down the stretch in a 78-63 loss to Liberty on Saturday afternoon.
 
Winthrop trailed by just four points, 55-51 after three quarters. But Liberty wore down the Eagles with its defensive pressure and domination in the paint to sweep the regular season series and improve to 51-10 all-time against Winthrop.
 
The loss drops Winthrop to 2-26 overall and 1-15 in Big South play while Liberty improves to 12-16 (11-5).  The 26 losses ties the school record for most losses in a season.
 
Winthrop had no answer to combat the inside game of Liberty's Keyen Green and KK Barbour who combined to score 44 points and two double-doubles.  Green scored 10 of her team's 12 first quarter points and finished with a game-high 26 points and 12 rebounds.  Barbour scored 18 points and grabbed 10 rebounds.
 
In addition to Williams' 21 points, freshman Marissa Cantrell reached double figures with 12 points.  Williams now has 1,713 career points.
 
With Green and Barbour scoring inside, the Flames outscored Winthrop 44-20 in the paint and had a 21-4 advantage in second chance points.  After committing just six turnovers in the first half, Winthrop was forced into 12 second half turnovers and the Flames turned those miscues into a 19-4 advantage.
 
For the third straight game, Winthrop stayed within striking distance for three quarters.  The Eagles trailed 12-10 after the first quarter and were down 38-30 at halftime.  Winthrop led by as many as four points in the second quarter when Cantrell and Noell Kellers led a 7-0 spurt to put the Eagles up 25-21 with 5:26 left.  Liberty's Green and Barbour closed out the half by scoring 10 of their team's last 14 points of the first half.
 
Winthrop made its best run of the game to open the third quarter by outscoring Liberty 10-2 in the first 3:09.  Cantrell had six of those points.  Barbour came back to make two free throws with just over six minutes left and Liberty never trailed again.
 
Green scored nine of LU's 10 points to begin the fourth quarter and Liberty was able to build a double figure lead at 65-55 with 5:42 left in the game.  Liberty's largest lead of the game was 78-59 with just over a minute left.
 
Winthrop will return to action on Monday when it travels to Clinton, SC to take on Presbyterian College at 7 p.m.