Winthrop women's comeback against Asheville falls short in 63-55 loss

The Winthrop women’s basketball team trimmed a 15-point deficit to five late in the game, but was unable to come all the way back before dropping a 63-55 Big South Conference contest to UNC Asheville on Tuesday at Gore Arena.

The loss snaps Winthrop’s eight-game winning streak over the Bulldogs as the Eagles fall to 2-10 on the season and 1-2 in conference play. Asheville, which is off to its best start in its NCAA Division I history, improves to 10-2 and remains unbeaten in Big South action at 3-0. The Bulldogs have now won nine of their last 10 games.

The Eagles were shorthanded going into the game as Erica Williams, the team’s leading scorer on the season, stayed in Rock Hill with a bone bruise to her left foot.

Without Williams, Winthrop got career-high double figure scoring performances from the trio of Jimecheia Banks, Naima Jackson and Ronata Rogers, but it wasn’t enough to offset Asheville’s 3-point shooting and advantage from the free throw stripe.

“I thought we out-played Asheville in a lot of ways, but the bottom line is we’ve got to find a way to stick the free throws. In an eight-point game we are 8 of 16 from the line and again we didn’t shoot the ball well from the three,” Winthrop head coach Kevin Cook said.

“I was really happy with the play from the twins (Naima and Nuba Jackson). I was happy with the play from Jimecheia Banks. She played the entire 40 minutes and she battled hard,” he said.

Banks led Winthrop in scoring with 12 points, while Rogers had 11 and Jackson added 10. Aliyah Kilpatrick, who was coming off a career-high 28 points in her last game, was held to seven as she struggled with a 3 for 16 shooting performance.

Asheville connected on 7 of 14 shots from behind the arc and converted 16 of 24 free throws in the game compared to just 1 of 12 three-point shooting and 8 of 16 free throw shooting by Winthrop.

Winthrop also had its hands full in trying to stop Chatori Major, who led all scorers in the game with 28 points. She made 9 of 16 field goals and was 4 of 6 from three-point land, including one with 5:53 left in the game that gave the Bulldogs their largest lead of 15 at 52-37 and another that was perhaps the biggest shot of the night that came with 3:48 remaining to make the score 58-49. That trey came just after Winthrop’s Banks had cut Asheville’s lead to six points at 55-49.

With the help its full-court zone press, Winthrop was able to make it a game down the stretch. The Eagles closed to within five points twice in the final two minutes, but Asheville was able to hold off the comeback by connecting on five free throws in the last 1:20.

Winthrop will return home for just the third time this season on Saturday, Jan. 2, when the Eagles host Longwood at 1 p.m. in Big South Conference action.

This story was originally published December 29, 2015 at 8:22 PM with the headline "Winthrop women's comeback against Asheville falls short in 63-55 loss."