Lady Eagles look to play more ‘Winthrop basketball' tonight

By Karl Lyles - klyles@heraldonline.com

Lady Eagles coach Bud Childers is looking for more minutes of “Winthrop basketball” tonight at Towson and less of the sloppiness that has characterized much of his team's play in the first two games of the season.

Winthrop is 1-1 after taking a season-opening wallop at Georgia Tech and then playing an encouraging second half to beat Division II Coker on Tuesday. The Georgia Tech game was Winthrop's introduction to the preseason WNIT, a 63-30 loss.

The first round of the consolation bracket in that tournament is tonight against the Towson Tigers. Towson (0-1) lost 79-42 at West Virginia.

Winthrop and Towson struggled to put points on the board against bigger schools in the first round of the WNIT. Winthrop trailed 36-12 at Georgia Tech; Towson found itself down 43-13 at the break to WVU.

The Lady Eagles had the luxury of getting another game in on Tuesday against Coker before resuming the WNIT. Winthrop was careless with the basketball in the first half, leading to a 25-20 deficit at intermission. The second half was much improved and saw seniors Shanice Cole and Jessica Fansler take control of the game. Cole netted 15 of her career-high 18 points in the second half; Fansler scored all 13 of her markers after the break.

“We played about 10 minutes of Winthrop basketball tonight,” Childers said after the Coker win. In the first two games, he figures he's seen maybe 16 minutes of the type of basketball he wants.

The aforementioned “10 minutes” came in the second half as Winthrop outscored Coker 38-22. That's what they will try to build on tonight.

The team can gain some momentum through this four-game road swing that leaves Towson after a second game Saturday. Winthrop flies back to Rock Hill on Sunday and then goes to Bozeman, Mont., for the Wingate Thanksgiving Classic for two games on Nov. 27-28.

Tonight, Towson will provide the Lady Eagles with better competition and more size than Coker. The game might be the first starting assignment for Winthrop's freshman center Chanel White. At 6-foot-3, she is the center Childers has wanted since he arrived at Winthrop.

White has learned Childers' style quickly. She scored six points in her first college game and netted eight against Coker.

“If Coker had more size, (White) would have started,” Childers said chatting courtside almost an hour after his first win of the season. “She goes hard and has good hands.”

Defensively, Winthrop will have to contend with Towson senior guard Shanae Baker-Brice, who scored 22 points at West Virginia. The rest of the Tigers combined for 20 points on 8-of-32 shooting.

Baker-Brice ranks third on Towson's all-time scoring list and fourth in steals.

The Tigers, a member of the Colonial Athletic Conference, are coached by Joe Matthews.

Matthews and the CAA are familiar to Childers from his time coaching in the league at James Madison.