Box Score HIGH POINT, NC – The Winthrop women's basketball team suffered a tough 56-54 loss at High Point Tuesday night.

The Eagles fall to 5-4 in the Big South and 9-11 overall with the loss while the Panthers improved to 13-6 overall and 6-2 in the conference.

HOW IT HAPPENED
The two sides played a back-and-forth early first quarter.  Neither squad had more than a two-point edge through the opening seven minutes and were tied 8-8 with 3:45 to play.  High Point went on a 7-0 run to take a 15-8 lead.  Miquela Santoro knocked down a jumper with 24 seconds left to bring the Eagles within 15-10 at the end of the first quarter.

Winthrop opened the second quarter on a 9-2 run to take a 19-17 lead with 6:36 on the clock.  The Panthers responded with a 6-0 run, four points coming from the free-throw line, taking a 23-19 lead with 3:23 left in the half.  The Eagles didn't stay down long, finishing the half on a 10-3 run and took a 29-26 lead into the break.

A hotly contested third quarter saw the Eagles extend their lead to six points at 35-29 before High Point rattled off seven straight points to take a 37-35 lead, forcing Winthrop into a timeout.  Winthrop outscored the Panthers 4-2 in the final two minutes and put forth a strong defensive stand on High Point's last possession of the period to head into the final 10 minutes tied 39-39.

An exciting fourth quarter started with High Point starting on an 8-2 run and taking a 47-41 lead with 5:22 remaining in the game.  Winthrop responded with a 6-1 run to pull within one with 3:25 on the clock.  The Panthers went back up by five before Winthrop came up with two defensive stops and converted four free throws to pull back within one with 31 seconds remaining.

After Winthrop got within one, the two teams traded turnovers, giving High Point the ball with 17 seconds to play.  The Eagles committed back-to-back fouls to put the Panthers on the free-throw line.  Camryn Brown hit her first and missed the second and it was rebounded by Kem Nwabudu.  A timeout was then called from the Winthrop bench but the Eagles were out of timeouts. 

The errant timeout call resulted in an administrative technical which gave High Point two free throws and the ball.  Brown hit both free throws and the Eagles again fouled on the inbounds pass.  The Panthers missed the first and hit the second.  The Eagles inbounded the ball to Courtney Hagaman who dribbled three quarters of the court and knocked down a three-pointer at the buzzer to reach the 56-54 final score.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
Kem Nwabudu led the Eagles with 14 points and nine rebounds while Jah'Che Whitfield added 13 points.  Winthrop shot 41 percent from the floor including 31 percent from three-point range and limited High Point to 38 percent from the field and 24 percent from long range.

WHAT'S UP NEXT
Winthrop will continue in its three-game road swing on Saturday with a 2 p.m. game against the UNC Asheville Bulldogs.