Sophomore guard Megan Sefcik played her best game as a Zip on Saturday, leading the University of Akron women’s basketball team to an 80-59 victory over Winthrop. The Zips record improves to 3-2 on the young season while Winthrop falls to 1-8.

The best player on the court was Sefcik (Austintown, Ohio), who scored a career-high 19 points. Sefcik shot 7-12 from the field, including 5-9 on 3-point attempts. Possibly most impressive about her performance is that she did it all in just 17 minutes of play, which ranked her fifth for playing time on the team.

Also for Akron, Hannah Plybon and Alex Ricketts each scored ten points and grabbed two rebounds. Forwards Alli Ball and Greta Burry added six points each, while Ball led the team with six rebounds and five assists. Off the bench, Lauren Hung and Brooke Kurucz finished with five points each while Caitlin Vari and Fredniqua Walker added four.

Winthrop was led by Danyael Goodhope, who scored 14 points off the bench. Goodhope also had five steals, four assists, and three rebounds. Also, Erica Williams finished with ten points, seven rebounds, and five assists, while making just four of 18 shots. Finally, Angela Coello Perez had nine points with three rebounds and three steals.

After a slow start that saw Winthrop take a 10-9 lead, the Zips went on an 12-3 run to end the first quarter. The Zips led 21-12 after one quarter. Akron would lead by 13 points going into halftime, and that’s the closest Winthrop would get the rest of the game.

Akron outscored Winthrop 24-12 in the third quarter, led by eight Sefcik points aided by two 3-pointers. The fourth quarter was all offense, as both teams played their backups most of the way. Winthrop outscored the Zips 24-20 in the quarter, while Akron played out an 80-59 win.

Sefcik and the Zips were excellent on Saturday, as they made 48.4 percent of their shots from the field and 37 percent (10-27) of their shots from deep. Also, Akron outrebounded Winthrop 39-35, had more assists (20-12), and had an amazing 46 bench points. One negative for Akron was their 19 turnovers, which was two less than Winthrop.

The Zips will get back to the hardwood on Tuesday night when they travel southeast to Youngstown to play the Penguins. Youngstown State is just 3-4 this season, but are 2-1 in games at the Beeghly Center. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m.