BOX SCORE HIGH POINT, N.C. – Winthrop had a furious second half comeback, but Radford women's basketball held on for a 62-56 victory in the Big South Quarterfinals Friday evening.
 
It was the first time since 2008 that the Highlanders advanced to the semifinals. That club also defeated Winthrop in the quarterfinal matchup.
 
Radford (16-14) outscored Winthrop (18-13) 11-4 in the early minutes of the second half and pushed its cushion to as many as 16, 46-30. 
 
However, Winthrop battled back with a 23-4 spurt led by the Big South Player of the Year DeQuesha McClanahan. During that span, McClanahan drained 14 of those points and the final three gave Winthrop its first lead (53-50) since 3-2 at 18:39 in the first half.
 
Da'Naria Erwin Spencer swished a 10-foot jumper just outside the paint to tie the game, 54-54 with 2:58 remaining. Ayana Avery then stepped up and hit a deep three-pointer to put Radford back ahead, 57-54 and the Highlanders wouldn't look back.
 
Victoria Hamilton, who grabbed 9 rebounds, helped Radford seal the win with four key free throws down the stretch. 

"I felt like we had good leadership down the stretch with our upperclassmen.  We were very focused coming out of the last timeout and did a great job of getting a stop and getting a score," commented head coach Tajama Abraham Ngongba. 
 
Much like the first meeting, Radford's bench held a decisive 19-0 advantage (41-1 Radford edge in bench points on Feb. 20 in Rock Hill, S.C.).
 
Radford was led by Erwin Spencer's 19 points and five assists.  Avery finished with 13 points and Ashley Buckhannon also chipped in with 11.  Avery and Buckhannon each hit three 3-pointers on the night. 
 
Winthrop placed McClanahan in double figures with a game-high 28 points on 10-of-27 shooting.  She also dished out four assists.  TaQuioia Hammick and Taylor Calvert both hit the double-figure mark in rebounds with 19 and 13, respectively.
 
With the score 12-10 in Radford's favor, Avery stepped in front of a Winthrop pass and threw it behind her back as she was falling out of bounds to keep the play alive.  Erwin Spencer collected then dished right back to Avery who drained a trifecta from the corner.  The three-pointer sparked a 9-0 Radford run to go ahead, 20-10.
 
Winthrop responded with an 11-2 run of its own to reduce the deficit to one, 22-21.  Radford wouldn't allow the Eagles to overtake the lead, however, as Avery came up big again and knocked down back-to-back buckets to go back up six, 26-21.
 
Three of the last four Radford buckets in the first half came from behind the arc, including a Buckhannon trey with one second remaining.  The Highlanders went into the break up, 35-26.    
 
Radford will face No. 2 overall seed High Point Saturday afternoon at 3:30 p.m.  The last time Radford faced High Point in the Millis Center was on Feb. 4 when the Highlanders handed the Panthers their first conference loss of the year (9-0).