Hot-shooting High Point women knock out Eagles

Winthrop’s women ran into a hot-shooting High Point team that connected on 51 percent of its field goals and used a fourth quarter three-point barrage to down the Eagles 80-60 on Saturday afternoon at the Millis Center.

High Point (10-15, 9-7) shot 63 percent from the floor in the first half (14-22) and finished the game by making 29 of 57 shots, including 8 of 14 from behind the 3-point line. Winthrop (4-21, 3-13) had one of its better shooting performances on the season as the Eagles connected on 43 percent (27 of 63).

The Eagles, who dressed only eight players and five scholarship players for the game, were plagued by foul trouble. Leading scorer Aliyah Kilpatrick, who led Winthrop with 15 points, picked up her third foul with five minutes left in the second quarter and was forced to sit the remainder of the first half. Without her in the lineup, High Point was able to build a 38-27 lead at intermission. Winthrop finished the game with four players with four personal fouls, but nobody fouled out.

In addition to Kilpatrick, junior forward CiiCii Buford had her third straight career-high scoring performance as she had 14 points on a 6 for 11 shooting performance.

“The foul trouble had a major effect on the game,” said Winthrop head coach Kevin Cook. “When you are short on numbers as we are, you can’t be as aggressive as you would like on defense.”

High Point was able to take advantage of Winthrop’s foul trouble by connecting on five of ten 3-pointers in the second half. The biggest shots came in the fourth quarter after Winthrop had trimmed an 11-point deficit to six after a layup and free throw by Kilpatrick with 8:23 left in the game. Keys answered with back-to-back triples and Kat Harris (16 points) connected on a third to balloon the lead back to 11 at 66-55 with 5:24 remaining.

Winthrop was never able to get the deficit back to single digits as High Point scored nine straight points over a two-minute stretch to go up by 20 at 75-55 at the 2:11 mark.

Winthrop’s next game will be on Tuesday, Feb. 25, when the Eagles host Radford at 7 p.m.

This story was originally published February 20, 2016 at 5:00 PM with the headline "Hot-shooting High Point women knock out Eagles."