Winthrop gives High Point a battle in Big South loss

Despite having only eight players available for the game, the Winthrop women’s basketball team gave visiting High Point a battle before dropping a 70-57 Big South Conference decision on Tuesday night.

The Eagles turned in a much better performance than they did in the first meeting with High Point back on Jan. 3 that ended in a 45-point Panther blowout. This one was much closer because the Eagles committed only 15 turnovers, made 10 steals and blocked seven shots.

The deciding factor once again proved to be the difference in 3-point field goals. High Point connected on 10 attempts from behind the arc compared to three by Winthrop. High Point’s Emma Bockrath, the leading scorer in the game with 24, connected on six of 10 from long distance.

Winthrop senior Erica Williams, who recorded her fifth double double of the season and 31st of her career, finished with 23 points and a game-high 10 rebounds. The 23 points pushed her past Ashley Fann into fourth place on the Winthrop career-scoring list. She now has 1,604 points and is two shy of moving past Janet Dykton into third place.

Freshman Marissa Cantrell scored 12 points for the Eagles and 6-4 freshman center Uchechi Ufochukwu pulled down nine rebounds and blocked three shots in 22 minutes of action.

Winthrop trailed 14-8 after the first quarter. Williams scored the first six points of the game for the Eagles. Winthrop came out in the second quarter and outscored the Panthers 8-2 to knot the game at 16-16 with 5:52 left in the first half, but the Eagles could never claim the lead as Bockrath drilled a 3-pointer to ignite a 17-3 run over a 3 minute, 9 second span to give High Point a 33-19 advantage. Winthrop trailed 38-28 at halftime after Williams connected on a buzzer beating 3-pointer.

The Eagles started the third quarter with an 8-2 run to close to within four points at 40-36 just a minute and 20 seconds into the second half. Williams connected on a jumper and a free throw during the rally while Naima Jackson made a jumper and a 3-pointer.

Winthrop could get no closer as it trailed 51-42 after three quarters and fell behind by as many as 16 following a short jumper by Shea Morgan that put the Panthers up 6549 with less than three minutes left in the game.

Winthrop finished the game with a 34 percent shooting percentage (21 of 62) while High Point was just a notch better at 35 percent (26-74). The Panthers connected on 10 of 32 from behind the arc compared to three of 14 for Winthrop.

The Eagles will hit the road this weekend when they travel to Farmville, Va., to take on Longwood at 2 p.m. Saturday. Winthrop’s only Big South win came against the Lancers on Jan. 24.

This story was originally published February 7, 2017 at 9:32 PM with the headline "Winthrop gives High Point a battle in Big South loss."