WILMINGTON, N.C. – Despite a spirited comeback effort in the third quarter and early into the fourth quarter, Winthrop fell to UNC Wilmington by a score of 79-61 Thursday morning at Trask Coliseum.
Winthrop (1-7) | UNC Wilmington (2-4)
Dec. 1, 2022 | Wilmington Coliseum
Winthrop 61, UNC Wilmington 79
How it Happened
First Quarter | Trailing 4-0 nearly two minutes into the game, Winthrop tied it on jumpers by
Paige Powell and
Jada Ryce with Ryce scoring the tying basket off of a UNCW turnover. The Seahawks then scored the next seven points to go up 11-4 with five minutes remaining.
Leonor Paisana stopped the run with a three-pointer on the next play to cut the deficit to 11-7 but the Seahawks would add one more basket before the media timeout to go up 13-7. Powell made it 13-9 UNCW by forcing a turnover and scoring on the fastbreak coming out of the timeout but UNCW went on a 9-4 run to seize their largest lead of the quarter at 22-13 with nearly a minute left.
Ally Ross hit one from deep with thirty-six seconds left to make it 22-16 and then Paisana hit two free throws just before time expired in the frame to enter the second quarter trailing 22-18.
Second Quarter | After Ryce got the scoring started in the second quarter with a layup to make it 22-20, the home team went on a 10-0 run to seize a 32-20 lead with less than eight minutes left.
Tori Hall ended the run with a layup nearly a minute later to cut the deficit to 32-22 and then Paisana hit her second three of the game to make it 32-25 Seahawks with six minutes to go. Two straight jumpers by UNCW restored their double-digit lead two minutes later only for Ross to score on a fastbreak to cut the lead to nine with nearly three minutes left. The Seahawks then scored the final four points to end the half up 40-27.
Third Quarter | Both teams started the second half sluggish, failing to score for more than the first two minutes until Powell got two straight layups to make the score 40-31 in favor of UNCW with less than seven minutes left. After a Seahawk basket, Paisana made a three-pointer a minute later to cut the deficit to eight points only for UNCW to answer with a three of their own on the next play. Trailing by 11 with less than six minutes to go in the frame, Winthrop went on a 6-0 run to cut the deficit to five points at 45-40 in a two-minute span. The run was capped off by a layup by
Shamyjha Price. Winthrop continued to hang around for the rest of the frame, with their largest deficit being only at nine points following the run, with Ryce,
Aaishah Barry and Hall each scoring a basket after cutting it to five. Hall's jumper inside of a minute made it a six-point deficit at 52-46 before UNCW hit a three to leave them up 55-46 heading into the final quarter.
Fourth Quarter | The fourth quarter started with both teams splitting the first eight points, with Ryce accounting for four of those points. Ryce's second basket of the frame left Winthrop down 59-50 with nearly eight minutes left. But UNCW began to pull away after that, going on a 16-4 run to take their largest lead of the game at 75-54 on a layup with three minutes left before Ross went on a 5-0 run by herself to cut it to 16 at 75-59 a minute later. UNCW scored the next four points before Powell closed out the scoring for the day with thirty seconds left on a layup while getting fouled as the home standing Seahawks went on to win 79-61.
Statistical Standouts (Team)
- Winthrop scored 18 points off turnovers
- Winthrop scored 24 points in the paint
- Winthrop scored 16 bench points
- Winthrop outscored UNCW 19-15 in the third quarter
- Winthrop was 7-12 from the field in the fourth quarter and 25-54 from the field for the game
- Four players played more than 30 minutes
Statistical Standouts (Individual)
Jada Ryce (32 min, 6-9 FG, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 16 pts)
Leonor Paisana (35 min, 3-6 3FG, 7 assists, 2 steals, 11 pts)
Paige Powell (30 min, 5-10 FG, 10 pts)
Up Next
Winthrop will return home on Saturday afternoon to take on the Bulldogs of South Carolina State University at 4:30.
FOLLOW US!
For all the up-to-date information on Winthrop Women's Basketball, follow along on Twitter at @WinthropWBB and Instagram at winthropwbb.
