With the fall season nearly half over, Homecoming, Thanksgiving and winter break are approaching. However, it will be basketball season that captures the majority of Winthrop’s attention.
Last season, the women’s basketball team finished 10-20 overall, making it 6-12 in the Big South Conference. Twice throughout their conference games, the team had a two-game winning streak. Although the team did not exactly come out on top, they remained strong, breaking records from the past few years when they earned 8th place in the Big South Conference.
With the team winning ten games during the 2018-2019 season, they won more games than the last three seasons combined. Coach Lynette Woodard, two-time U.S. Olympian and first woman to ever play with the Harlem Globetrotters, plans to continue this trend of improvements. Coach Woodard explains how two players, then freshman, Kem Nwabudu and Jah’che Whitfield, helped make these successes possible.
“Kem was selected on the all Big South Freshman Team. While Jah’che was selected Player of the Week two weeks in a row,” Woodard said.
These skillful players were some of the top ranking members on the stats sheet for the 2018-19 season. Nwabudu, who is now a sophomore forward, made the most free throws with 48, while Whitfield, also now a sophomore, came in second with 46. Nwabudu also recorded 31 blocks and scored 294 points during her freshman career. Whitfield scored 256 points and recorded 38 steals.
Coach Woodard also says that her and the team “leaned on Miquela Santoro and Anika Riley with veteran leadership.” Now a senior, Santoro excelled with 20 three pointers during the 2018-2019 season and made 43 of her attempted 52 free throws.
Riley dominated the boards last season as her abilities earned her the most minutes on the court. She had a whopping total of 240 rebounds and 46 steals. This season, Riley is a junior who will hopefully continue her epic guard moves to crush this season.
Angela Coello Perez, a six-foot-one senior forward, was another top player as a junior last season, having 82 rebounds and scoring 104 points.
“We are very excited, we have a lot of new people so we are trying to find a way to play together and build the culture of the team, on and off the court. Last year was already a change and we had a better season, so this year we are trying to follow that path and win even more games,” Perez said.
Meleeah Langstaff, a five-foot-eleven guard and forward, had a great freshman season last year as she accumulated a total of 32 assists, 30 steals and 14 blocks. Langstaff is thinking positive for this season as she is extremely eager to play with her new teammates and coaches.
“I’m definitely most excited about starting to play and just getting on the road and getting at it with my team … I know that we’re just going to keep getting better and going to be a serious threat to the conference and out of conference games,” Langstaff said.
Although the players had limited time with their coaches throughout preseason, that did not stop them from doing all they could to prepare for game time. Coello Perez explains how “practice was structured in small groups so the coaches could focus more on each player and their individual skills,” as well as players “getting in the gym individually to get shots up or to do individual workouts with their position coach.”
Both Coach Woodard and Coello Perez think the University of Kentucky will be one of their biggest competitors this upcoming season. Although this school is part of the Eagle’s non-conference schedule, Coello Perez knows they will “be a good rival so [they] need to prepare for that game.”
Unanimously, players and coaches believe the toughest conference team they will encounter is Radford since the university won the Big South Championship last year. Nevertheless, Langstaff is ready to “give them a run for their money.”
These upcoming challenges are simply making the team push harder in training in order to defeat these worthy opponents. Coello Perez is looking forward to her program’s perseverance paying off.
“We have been working to make a difference from the past years and we will keep working until we win the championship,” Coello Perez said.
Supporting the athletic teams at Winthrop is a major part of the university culture. With all sporting events being free, and some even enticing guests with free t-shirts or other goodies, it is important to attend sporting events and cheer the Eagles on.
“Hopefully we get more and more people at our games, we want to see that the students support us and we really want them to come to our games,” Coello Perez said.
On the other hand, Langstaff simply thinks her and her teammates will “have to bring the energy every single night regardless of who’s in the stands.”
“We just got to lock in and play hard every night and I think that when people start seeing how this program is changing they’ll start to maybe come and support,” Langstaff said.
Come check out the women’s basketball exhibition game at 7 p.m. on Nov. 5 against North Greenville in the Winthrop Coliseum.
