The Presbyterian College basketball teams are both undefeated on the Big South Conference road. On the down side, neither Alaura Sharp’s women nor Quinton Ferrell’s men has prevailed in a league game within the dark, cozy confines of Templeton Center.

Home has been where the hard is.

In Rock Hill, the women took down Winthrop, 59-43, on Wednesday night. In Clinton, the Eagles took the measure of the PC men, 81-71, in front of 644 who were mostly wearing blue and garnet. In Rock Hill, the 285 on hand mostly wore their garnet trimmed in gold.

After the women’s victory, Sharp stated the Blue Hose’ defense “was so good, it was suffocating.”

Mara Neira literally shot the Eagles down, hitting 7/8 triples (but 0/3 inside the arc) that multiplied into 21 points. Neira came to Presbyterian (11-7, 2-1 Big South) from long range. She is a 5-7 junior guard from Galicia, Spain, who previously played a two-year term at Eastern Wyoming College in Torrington, the county seat of Goshen County.

“I thought we did a great job of keeping [Winthrop] off the free throw line,” Sharp added. “They are a great offensive rebounding team. We gave them 12 offensive rebounds (the Blue Hose got eight), but when we needed stops, I thought we got them. Any time they were about to make a run, we really stepped up with our defense.”

Winthrop (7-9, 1-2) had an apparent tendency to tip PC off to when they were “about to make a run.” Basketball is such an intuitive game.

The Eagles won the opening tap and took the first basket of the game, but PC had a 19-15 edge by quarter’s end – even though the Eagles led by seven with 3:14 left in it — and wound up leading for 33:23 of the 40 minutes.

After the Eagles scored 13 straight points, Neira spurred a nine-point rally by the Blue Hose with consecutive triples.

Bryanna Brady and Paige Kindseth provided offensive aid with 10 points apiece. Kindseth led in both rebounds (6, with Tilda Sjokvist and Christina Kline) and assists (6). Overall, PC grabbed two more rebounds (32-30) than Winthrop. PC won three of the four periods, playing to a 10-10 stalemate in the second.

Only Ronaltha Marc scored in double figures with 13 points for Winthrop. Marissa Gasaway had more rebounds (8) and steals (3) than anyone else on the floor, but also more turnovers (5).

PC shot better (12/20) from beyond three-point range than within it (9/26). Winthrop shot well nowhere, shooting .357 from the field, .231 in triples and .000 (a mere 0/2) at the line. Free throws were in short supply, but PC hit 5/6.

The Blue Hose return to Templeton Center on Saturday to face the Gardner-Webb Bulldogs at 2 p.m.

Take a look at the stats here.

Meanwhile, back at broken home, Winthrop, led by Kasen Harrison with 19 points, won the former half by nine points and the latter by one.

Junior guard Samage Teel from Greenville, N.C., led Presbyterian (9-9, 1-2) with 13 points, also collecting four rebounds and four assists. Marquis Barnett and Crosby James each added 12, and Jonah Pierce scored 10 points while heading the rebounds with eight, one more than Kobe Stewart.

Winthrop (12-6, 3-0) scored the game’s first seven points and never trailed, though a 10-point streak in the first half brought the Blue Hose within three.

Across the stat sheet, the Eagles sizzled with .543 shooting overall, .500 from deep and .840 from the line. The Blue Hose’ corresponding numbers were .413, .333 and .786.

On the positive side, 18 of PC’s 26 field goals were assisted and the Blue Hose committed only eight turnovers while forcing 13.

“I thought we came out a little slow defensively,” Ferrell stated. “The first time [Winthrop] scored was a dunk. We talked about our ball-screen coverage and not giving up dunks, and somebody had a blown assignment.

“We had too many plays like that in the first half and committed too many fouls.”

In the second half, PC got within four points on three occasions but never got closer.

“We’ve got to find a way to play cleaner basketball for 40 minutes,” Ferrell added. “Things we want to control as part of our game plan, we’re not controlling at a high enough rate.

Presbyterian faces Gardner-Webb Bulldogs in Boiling Springs, N.C., on Saturday at 1 p.m.    

Take a look at the stats here.

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