ROCK HILL, SC – Despite a strong shooting performance, the Winthrop women's basketball team fell 79-58 at home to the High Point Panthers Saturday afternoon.

Winthrop falls to 0-4 in the Big South and 1-14 overall with the loss while the Panthers remain unbeaten in conference play at 4-0 and improve to 10-5 overall.

HOW IT HAPPENED

The two sides played a fairly even opening six minutes to the game as High Point led only 9-7.  The Panthers, however, closed the first quarter on a 9-2 run and led 18-9 after the first 10 minutes.

High Point quickly increased its lead to 12 to start the second quarter before the Eagles found the hot hand and went on an 11-0 run to get within one with 5:37 remaining in the half.  The Eagles then went scoreless for more than five minutes as High Point scored 14 unanswered points to go up 38-23.  Winthrop connected on the last bucket of the half to go into the break, down 38-25.

After trading buckets through the first four minutes of the third quarter, Winthrop was able to go on a quick 7-0 spurt to get back within eight at 47-39.  High Point was able to get its lead back to 11 at 55-44 heading in the final quarter.

The two sides again went back and forth early in the fourth quarter before the Panthers rattled off 10 straight points to increase their lead to 22 at 72-50.  The Eagles were unable to overcome the deficit, falling 79-58.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

Winthrop had its second-best shooting performance of the season Saturday, hitting 44.2 percent of its shots from the floor and a season-high 53.8 percent of shots from three-point range.  The Eagles held a rebounding edge of the Panthers for most of the game but ended up being 37-31 at the end.

Freshman Emily Kelley had the hot hand for the Eagles, leading the team with 15 points on 5-of-6 shooting from the field and a perfect 5-for-5 from three-point range.  Ronata Rogers finished with 10 points and five rebounds while Kayla Atkins led the team with seven rebounds and added six points.

WHAT'S UP NEXT

Winthrop get ready for another road trip for its next contest.  The Eagles will head towards the coast on Tuesday for a 7 p.m. contest against the Charleston Southern Buccaneers.