Rock Hill, S.C. – Coming off a loss at No. 15 Tennessee on Dec. 29, Winthrop women's basketball (6-7, 0-0 Big South) opens Big South play and the year 2025 Thursday night at USC Upstate (3-10, 0-0 Big South).
A LOOK AT USC UPSTATE
- This will be the 30th time in history that the Eagles and Spartans will meet, with Winthrop leading the series, 16-13
- The first meeting in the series was a 76-43 victory by the Eagles at home on Feb. 14, 1977 on the way to winning 11 of the first 16 meetings from 1977 to 2008
- USC Upstate joined the Big South Conference for the 2018-19 athletic year and while the Eagles lead the overall series, the Spartans lead the series 8-5 since becoming a member of the Big South
- Last season the two teams split a pair of contests, with USC Upstate winning 52-51 in Rock Hill on Jan. 6, 2024 but the Eagles struck back with a 67-61 upset victory in Spartanburg on Feb. 24
- Winthrop head coach Semeka-Randall Lay will face USC Upstate for the ninth time in her career and is 4-4 against the Spartans
- In their most recent game back on Dec. 19 (a home game), the Spartans gutted out a 65-59 victory over Lees-McRae, snapping a five-game skid thanks to redshirt freshman Cassie Gallagher's career-high 17 points
- The Spartans are coming off the program's first WNIT appearance last season and entered this season with its highest preseason poll selection since joining the Big South Conference
- Returning for her third season in a Spartan uniform, senior forward Rebekah Gordon represents Upstate's leading returning scorer from last season's WNIT team. Over an average of 24.3 minutes per game, she averaged 8.5 points and 4.8 rebounds per contest as she played in all 32 games, making 31 starts
- The Spartans also see junior guard Jeni Levine (8.5 ppg) and senior forward AC Markham (5.8 ppg) round out the team's trio of returning starters from a year ago
LAST TIME OUT
- Winthrop ended both non-conference play and 2024 with a loss on the road to the nationally 15th ranked Tennessee Volunteers Sunday afternoon, 114-50
- Winthrop outscored Tennessee in fast break points, 23-18
- Winthrop held Tennessee to 11% from deep in the third quarter
- Winthrop had a higher free throw shooting percentage than the Volunteers, 83% to 66%
RECORDS FALL VS. PAINE (NOV. 10)
- Winthrop set numerous records with a 111-32 defeat of Paine College in the home opener
- Paisana had a career-high in assists
- Pierfax and Persais Williams set career-highs in every statistical category
- Amourie Porter had a career-high in assists
- Ar'Mani Reid had a career-high in points
- Ciara Harris had a career-high in points and three-pointers made
- Tied a school record for fewest points allowed in the first half since becoming a Division I member in 1986-87 (7)
- Winthrop last accomplished this feat vs. St. Andrew's at home in a 60-29 win on Nov. 23, 2022
- Winthrop scored 100 points in a game for the first time since a 117-43 win over Gallaudet on Nov. 15, 2014
- This was the most points scored the Eagles have scored in 10 years
SEASON HONORS/AWARDS
- Marissa Gasaway, Senior-Forward (Big South Conference Preseason First Team)
- Started and played in all 30 games last season, led the Big South in rebounds with 318 and was tenth in the Big South in free throw percentage at .730
- She was named to the Big South All-Conference Honorable Mention at the end of the regular-season
- Gasaway led the team in free throws made with 81 and rebounds with 318
- Jada Ryce, Senior-Guard (Big South Conference Preseason Second Team)
- Played and started in all 30 games last season
- Finished in fourth in the Big South in steals with 53, fifth in free throw percentage at .775, eighth in assists with 71 and minutes with 954
- Named Big South All-Conference Honorable Mention and Big South All-Academic Team at the conclusion of the regular-season
- Surpassed 500 career points vs. Charleston Southern at home on Jan. 24, 2024
- Led the team in minutes played with 915, field goals made with 115; total points with 333 and steals with 53
- Amourie Porter, Sophomore-Guard/Forward-Big South Player of the Week-Nov. 11-17
- Porter turned in averages of 14.0 points, 6.0 rebounds and 1.5 blocks while shooting 45.0 percent from the field in games at Queens and Wake Forest
- She led the Eagles to a 69-52 win over the Royals with a season-high 19 points and seven rebounds, including an impressive career-high 12-of-14 performance at the free-throw line
- The sophomore followed up with nine points, five rebounds, and two assists against Wake Forest
STATISTICAL LEADERS
- Porter leads the team in points with 158
- Gasaway leads the team in rebounds with 92
- Harris leads the team in three-pointers with 25
- Paisana leads the team in assists with 44 and steals with 24
- Okoh leads the team in blocks with five
- Winthrop is third in the conference in rebounds per game with 37.8
- Winthrop is third in the conference in steals per game with 8.38
- Winthrop is third in the conference in field goal percentage with .388
- Winthrop is third in the Big South in assists per game with 11.92
- Winthrop has the fourth best scoring offense in the Big South, averaging 63.7 ppg
- Harris is second in the conference in three-pointers per game with 1.9
- Porter is ranked third in the conference in points per game with 12.2
- Paisana is fourth in the conference in assists per game with 3.4 and is fifth in the conference in steals per game with 1.8
- Wagner is ranked 9th in the conference in assists with 2.5
- Gasaway and Porter are ranked 5th and 10th in the conference in rebounds per game, respectively
- Okoh is ranked 10th in the conference in blocked shots per game with 0.4
A LOOK AT THE EAGLES
- Last season, the Eagles finished 14-16 overall and 8-8 in Big South Conference games
- Eagles finished last season having the most wins since they won 17 in 2014-15
- Eagles finished last season with their most Big South wins since they won eight in 2019-20
- Eagles ended the year having their highest conference finish (6th) since 2014-15, when they finished third
- In her third full season as the permanent head coach in 2023-24, Semeka Randall-Lay saw the Eagles register a sweep of Longwood for the second straight year and snapped long skids in the series with UNC Asheville and Gardner-Webb
- Most notably the Eagles had overtime victories over UNC Asheville on the road and Radford at home and sweeping Gardner-Webb and UNC Asheville for the first time in nearly a decade
- Randall-Lay also coached the program's 600th all-time win at South Carolina State, was named to the 2024 American Basketball Hall of Fame, captured her 100th career coaching victory vs. Longwood at home, and saw Marissa Gasaway and Jada Ryce take home All-Conference honors
- Randall-Lay's squad returns eight players from last season, including five who played in all 30 games in the 2023-24 campaign
- The Eagles also welcome three new additions to the coaching staff: Dominique Duck (director of basketball operations), Myron Poindexter (graduate assistant coach), and Jordan Warlick (video coordinator)
- The team has one freshman, three sophomores (with one transfer), three juniors (with all of them being transfers and two of them coming from conference rival Radford), seven seniors (with one of them being a transfer from conference rival Presbyterian) and two graduate transfer students
- Marissa Gasaway, a senior forward from Louisville, Ky., started and played in all 30 games, led the Big South in rebounds with 318 and was tenth in the Big South in free throw percentage at .730. Gasaway was named the Big South Women's Basketball Player of the Week for games played Nov. 27-Dec. 3. She was named to the Big South All-Conference Honorable Mention at the end of the regular-season. Gasaway led the team in free throws made with 81 and rebounds with 318
- Jada Ryce, a senior guard from McDonough, Ga., played and started in all 30 games. Ryce finished in fourth in the Big South in steals with 53, fifth in free throw percentage at .775, eighth in assists with 71 and minutes with 954. Against Carolina University at home on Dec. 10, 2023, she came within one of tying the school record for steals in a single game set by Cassandra Barnes vs. Sacred Heart on Feb. 12, 1981. Ryce surpassed 500 career points vs. Charleston Southern at home on Jan. 24. Ryce was named Big South All-Conference Honorable Mention and Big South All-Academic Team at the conclusion of the regular-season. She led the team in minutes played with 915, field goals made with 115; total points with 333 and steals with 53
- Ronaltha Marc, a senior guard/forward from Miami, Fla., played in all 30 games. She also started in every game but one and had 14 games in double figures in total points
- Leonor Paisana, a senior point guard from Lisbon, Portugal, played and started in all 30 games. She finished sixth in the Big South in assists with 79, tenth in three-point field goals per game at 1.2 and steals with 42. She entered the Top 10 in school history in three-pointers made vs. Charleston Southern at home on Jan. 24. Paisana scored her 500th career point at USC Upstate on Feb. 24 and led the team in three-point field goals made with 37 and assists with 79
- Blessing Okoh, a senior forward from Houston, Texas, played in all 30 games and started in 28 of them. She finished third in the Big South in blocked shots with 24. This also led the team
- The other four returnees include sophomore guard Ar'Mani Reid from Jacksonville, N.C; senior center Prunelle Mungo from Philadelphia, Pa.; and sophomore guard Adelaide McLeod from Savoy, Ill.
- McLeod did not play last season while Reid played in 22 games. Mungo played in 24 games and had one game in double figures in points (10 vs. Erskine on Nov. 14, 2023)
- In addition to the four returners, Randall-Lay and her staff have brought in eight newcomers in Olivia Wagner; Ciara Harris; Mya Pierfax; Amourie Porter; Persais Williams; Nuria Cunill; Konnor Gambrell and Bria Beverly
- Winthrop has been predicted to finish fourth in the 2024-25 season
- This is Winthrop's highest pre-season conference finish since 2015-16, when the Eagles were slated to finish second
- Ryce was named to the 2024-25 Big South Conference Women's Basketball Preseason All-Conference First Team while Gasaway was named to the Second Team
- Winthrop is currently 618-914 all-time as a program, their 55th season
- Winthrop is 355-328 all-time at home
- Winthrop is 211-375 all-time in Big South games
- Randall-Lay starts her fifth season as head coach of the Eagles (spent the 2020-21 season in an interim role)
- Randall-Lay is the 17th head coach in program history
- Randall-Lay is coaching in her 415th career game, all at the NCAA DI level
- Paisana is now seventh in school history in career triples made (107)
- The Tennessee game was Paisana's 100th career game as a collegian and is seven games away from 100 career starts
- Paisana is now seven assists away from moving into a tie for 10th in school history in assists
- She currently has 295 assists
GET YOUR SEASON TICKETS TODAY
General Admission tickets will be sold for all women's basketball games in the 2024-25 season. Season general admission tickets are currently on sale for $45. Single-game tickets are $10. Get your season pass today by visiting
WinthropEagles.com or call the ticket office at (803) 323-2345.
WATCH THE EAGLES ON ESPN+
All of the home games during the 2024-25 season will air live on ESPN+. You can also catch all road games in Big South Conference play 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.
LOOKING AHEAD
Winthrop welcomes the Radford Highlanders for the Big South home opener on Saturday, Jan. 4 at 2:00 p.m.
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