HIGH POINT, N.C. – The High Point University women’s basketball team visits Winthrop on Tuesday night at 7:00 p.m. looking for its third straight victory.
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The Panthers (5-11, 4-3) are trending up with back-to-back wins over Coastal Carolina and Campbell while the Eagles (2-13, 1-5) have lost eight straight.
Last Time Out
Once again, the freshman class sparked the Panthers to a win on Sunday as the team bested Campbell 69-55 for its first road victory of the season.
All four Panthers who scored in double figures were freshmen, as the newcomers combined for 58 of the 69 points. Freshman Lindsey Edwards led the way with 19 points. She anchored a 23-10 run through the third quarter with a dozen of her points.
Likewise, freshman Haleigh Hatfield recorded a double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds. Meanwhile, freshman Shea Morgan just missed a double-double with 10 points and nine rebounds. Behind the efforts of Hatfield and Morgan, the Panthers posted a 49-34 edge on the glass.
Freshman Emma Bockrath posted 14 points and five assists in the win. That performance, combined with Tuesday’s 18-point outing, earned Bockrath her first Big South Freshman of the Week honor on Monday, Jan. 18.
Freshman Rising
• HPU’s seven freshmen are logging 64 percent of the team’s minutes and are scoring 58 percent of HPU points and grabbing 62 percent of the squads steals this season.
• Freshman Emma Bockrath is averaging 16.3 points per game in the last three games and is the reigning Big South Freshman of the Week.
• The Panthers’ freshmen class accounted for 101 of the 122 points (83 percent) during the team’s two-game winning streak.
• Bockrath (8.5 ppg) and Lindsey Edwards (8.7 ppg) are third and second in scoring among Big South freshman on the year.
• Freshman Haleigh Hatfield’s 4.8 rebounds per contest is the fourth-best average among league newcomers.
• Freshman Shea Morgan is shooting .500 from the floor (45-of-90) on the year.
Key’s Climb
• Junior Kaylah Keys is the leading active scorer in the Big South Conference after passing Liberty’s Ashley Rininger last week.
• Keys is fifth on HPU’s Division I scoring list with 1,256 points in just two and a half seasons. She needs 18 points to tie Stacia Robertson for fourth (1,274).
Scouting the Eagles
• Injuries have derailed the Eagles’ promising season. Winthrop was picked to finish second in the conference as senior Schaquilla Nunn and junior Erica Williams were picked the league’s first team but both have missed time with injuries.
• A tough non-conference schedule featured four power-five opponents saw Winthrop go 1-8. Since the team upended Gardner-Webb, the squad has dropped eight straight games.
• Williams leads the league with 16.0 points per game while grabbing 6.5 rebounds per outing.
• Aliyah Kilpatrick leads the Big South with 4.1 steals per game while scoring 12.5 points a night.
All-Time Series with Winthrop
• HPU leads the all-time series 23-20, but have dropped five of the last seven since DeUnna Hendrix has taken the reigns.
Last Time They Met
• Both teams earned double-digit home wins to split the season series. HPU won 81-55 at home and lost 91-74 at Winthrop.
• Junior Kaylah Keys is tallying 14.4 points per game in five meetings with Winthrop. Junior Maja Michalska had a career-high 14 points against Winthrop last season.
Next Up
The Purple & White will return home on Saturday to take on conference-leading UNC Asheville at 2:00 p.m.