Rock Hill, S.C.– Winthrop women's basketball head coach Semeka Randall-Lay announced her team's 2023-24 schedule, complete with a 13-game non-conference schedule prior to the start of Big South Conference play.
 
The Eagles open the regular season with two road games, traveling to Clemson on Monday, Nov. 6, followed by Alabama on Friday, Nov. 10. Winthrop's first home game will be against Erskine on Tuesday, Nov. 14, followed by an away game at South Carolina State on Saturday, Nov. 18 and then returning home for one more contest prior to the Thanksgiving holiday vs. St. Augustine's on Tuesday, Nov. 21.
 
Winthrop will play two straight neutral site contest against opponents TBD on the campus of the University of California in Berkeley Friday, Nov. 24 and Saturday, Nov. 25 in the California Berkeley Tournament. The Eagles return to Rock Hill for four straight contests, with three taking place at the Winthrop Coliseum. Winthrop will host UNC-Wilmington on Wednesday, Nov. 29, Queens (N.C.) on Sunday, Dec. 3, Carolina University on Sunday, Dec. 10 and Georgia State on Thursday, Dec. 14 at the Rock Hill Sports and Events Center.
 
The remainder of the non-conference slate will be two games played on the road, beginning North Florida on Wednesday, Dec. 20 and will conclude at Florida on Saturday, Dec. 30.
 
The Eagles will open up Big South play at Longwood on the road on Wednesday, Jan. 3 and will host USC Upstate on Saturday, Jan. 6 for the home conference opener. The conference schedule is set up for all the team's to play 16 league games, as each member will play eight home games and eight road games due to Campbell's departure from the Big South Conference for a second time.
 
Last season, the Eagles finished 8-22 overall and 6-12 in Big South Conference games. In her second full season as the permanent head coach in 2022-23, Randall Lay saw the Eagles pick up their first win of the season against Division II St. Andrew's (NC) by a final score of 60-29 and in the process set two new records: fewest points allowed in the first half since becoming a Division I member in 1986-87 and the 29 points allowed by Winthrop is the eighth-lowest for fewest points allowed in a game since becoming a Division I member in 1986-87. She also saw the Eagles get a regular-season sweep of the-then defending conference champions Longwood and then USC Upstate on consecutive days and watched Paige Powell and Leonor Paisana take home All-Conference honors. Randall-Lay's squad returns four players from last season, including juniors Jada Ryce (10.7 ppg) and Paisana (5.9 ppg) while also welcoming two new assistant coaches: Necole Sterling and Dante Travis.
 
The team has two five freshman, six juniors (with four of them being transfers), two seniors (with one of them being a transfer) and two graduate students.
 
Ryce, a guard from McDonough, GA played the most minutes for an Eagle last season (1,047) and started and played in every game (30) and recording a double-double. She tallied 19 games in double-figure scoring, including a season-high 20 points vs. UNC-Greensboro.
 
Paisana, a guard from Lisbon, Portugal, was named to the Big South All-Academic Team, led the team in three-pointers (39) and assists (82) and recording seven double figure scoring games, including a season-high 21 points vs. USC Upstate.
 
The other two returnees, Frances Brown, a senior guard from Valley Stream, NY, came off the bench last season, starting only two of 28 games she played in and averaging 1.8 ppg while Tiana Spann, a redshirt freshman center from Charleston, SC, didn't see any action.
 
In addition to the four returners, Randall-Lay and her staff have brought in 11 newcomers in Angel Burgos, Claudia Clement, Elli Garnett, Marissa Gasaway, Ronaltha Marc, Adelaide McLeod, Prunelle Mungo, Blessing Okoh, Katie Reed, Ar'Mani Reid and Nyah Stallings.
 
Times for all home and conference contests will be announced in the coming weeks. Season tickets for Winthrop women's basketball can be purchased at WinthropEagles.com, by calling the Winthrop Ticket Office at 803-323-2345, or by emailing tickets@winthrop.edu.
 
You can also find all your needs for Winthrop gear here- ShopWinthropeagles and ShopWinthropGear.
 
All of the home and conference games during the 2023-24 season will air live on ESPN+. To watch Big South games on ESPN+ you must have a subscription to ESPN+. For more information on how to subscribe, click here.
 
For all the up-to-date information on Winthrop Women's Basketball, follow along on Twitter at @WinthropWBB, Instagram at winthropwbb and Facebook at facebook.com/WinthropWBB.