Winthrop women’s basketball team knocks off Gardner-Webb 62-54

ROCK HILL, SC–Thirteen was a lucky number for the Winthrop women’s basketball team Thursday night as the Eagles used a key 13-0 run in the second half en route to a 62-54 win over Gardner-Webb and a school-record 13th Big South Conference victory.

Dequesha McClanahan scored a game-high 23 points and Diana Choibekova returned to the lineup after missing three games with a sprained ankle to score 17 to lead Winthrop to the win and a regular season sweep of the Bulldogs.

Winthrop (19-10, 13-4) can now tie the NCAA Division I school record for season wins when it hosts UNC Asheville at 1 p.m. on Senior Day this Saturday. The 2007-08 squad is the only team to reach the 20-win mark. “The 20 wins was one of our goals when we started the season,” said Winthrop head coach Kevin Cook.

The win over Gardner-Webb (12-16, 5-12) also puts the Eagles in position to clinch the No. 2 seed in next week’s Big South Championship Tournament if they close out the regular season with a win over Asheville.

Neither team shot the ball well on Thursday night as Winthrop finished at 30 percent (21-70) and GWU was held to 29 percent (18-62), but it was the Eagles’ defense that made the difference, forcing 26 Bulldog turnovers that were turned into 22 points.

Winthrop led 27-25 at halftime after leading by as much as 12 points at 23-11 with 6:23 left in the period following a Ashley Porter lay-up. Gardner-Webb bounced back to outscore Winthrop 14-4 over the final six minutes of the half.

Winthrop opened the second half on a 7-1 run as with Choibekova connecting on a 3-pointer and two free throws to put the Eagles up 34-26. Gardner-Webb then outscored Winthrop 11-5 behind to get to within a bucket at 39-37 on Catrina Green’s three-point play with 11:17 left in the game.

That’s when the Eagles turned up the defensive pressure and went on another 13-0 run over the next three minutes to to take a 52-37 advantage. McClanahan started the run with a 3-pointer and two free throws, followed by back-to-back 3-pointers by Choibekova and Aliyah Kilpatrick and then closed out with two more free throws by McClanahan.

“Those two 13-0 runs were very important tonight,” said Cook. “Both runs were fueled by defensive pressure.

Winthrop enjoyed its largest lead of the game at 60-44 with 2:54 left to play when Choibekova scored on back-to-back lay-ups.

GWU had three players score in double figures led by Jessica Heilig with 15. Candace Brown and Green finished the game with double-doubles. Brown had 16 points and 12 rebounds while Green scored 10 points and grabbed a game-high 16 rebounds.

Winthrop was led on the boards by Taylor Calvert with 12.