Finding Five
12/1/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 1, 2008
ASun.TV | Live Stats
Complete Mercer Game Notes in PDF Format 
SPARTANBURG, S.C. - It's been a long time since the USC Upstate women's basketball team has had a streak like this. The team's four-game winning streak is its first since head coach Tammy George's first year in 2005-06. On Wednesday, the Spartans will take the court in their Atlantic Sun Conference opener at Mercer looking to do something it hasn't done since 1997, win five games in a row.
The Spartans (4-0 overall) will look to stay the A-Sun's only undefeated team when it heads to Macon, Ga., for their first matchup against the Bears on the road in 30 seasons. Looking to lead the Spartans at the University Center is a burgeoning inside-out game that includes the three top 3-point threats in the league (Courtney Hawkins, Lesley Daniel and Kendra Wallace) and two new faces down low (Chelsea McMillan and Sam Frost) that are combining to average for 20.1 points and 10.8 rebounds per game.
The Bears (3-2 overall) are also much improved from a team that tied for 11th in the A-Sun with the Spartans last season, led by Oklahoma State transfer Dominique Chism, who averages 18.0 points per game.
Notes
• The Spartans 4-0 start is already the second-best in school history, second only to the 8-0 start of the Peach Belt champion 1994-95 team.
• The Spartans have won four straight games for the first time since a four-game stretch from Jan. 11-21, 2006.
• The last time the Spartans won a game in Georgia was on Jan. 21, 2006 at North Georgia.
• With 23 blocked shots as a team, the Spartans are already more than half to their 2007-08 total of 42.
• Junior Courtney Hawkins has scored in double-figures in 13 straight games.
• Freshman Kendra Wallace needs one more 3-pointer to become the 16th Spartan to hit 10 treys as a freshman.
• Senior Ebony Johnson needs nine rebounds to become the 15th player at Upstate with 400 in a career.
• Upstate has shot 50 percent from 3-point land in each of its last three games.
• Senior Courtney Bradley is four assists shy of the school's NCAA-era assists record of 335 set by Angelina Gordon from 1994-97.
Start It Up
The USC Upstate women's basketball team is out to the second-best start in program history, thanks to a high-powered offense that is averaging 79.0 points per game. Upstate will need to win its next four games in order to tie the mark for the best start in school history, as then-USC Spartanburg won its first eight games in the 1994-95 season en route to its final Peach Belt Conference regular-season championship and a slot in the NCAA Division II South Atlantic Regional Finals.
Little Bit `O Redemption
The 73-63 win over IUPUI on Nov. 24 was a bit of sweet redemption for the Spartans, who fell 65-56 to the Jaguars (3-2 overall) on Nov. 21, 2007 after the Spartans took a six-point lead into the half, spoiling Upstate's first Division I game at the Hodge Center. Junior Courtney Hawkins scored 19 of her game-high 22 points in the second half, as she canned three of her four 3-pointers in the stanza, to help the Spartans overcome a three-point deficit heading into the locker room. The game, played at the home of the Indiana Pacers, Conseco Fieldhouse, spoiled the first Jags' game ever played in the downtown Indianapolis facility.
Triple Trifection
After shooting .248 from downtown in 2007-08, the Spartans have started out sizzling from long-range this season, hitting 49 percent (25-for-51) through their first four games. The team features the three of the top long-distance specialists in the conference, with junior Courtney Hawkins leading the conference with an .875 3-point field goal percentage (7-for-8). She is followed by both freshmen Lesley Daniel (.625/5-for-8) and Kendra Wallace (.474/9-for-19) in the second and fifth positions, respectively.
New Faces Downtown
Fourteen of USC Upstate's 25 3-pointers this season have been hit by freshmen. Three-point specialists in high school, Lesley Daniel has connected on five trifectas and Kendra Wallace has hit nine from downtown. Daniel, a backup point guard, has averaged 21.0 minutes per game, averaging 9.3 points, 2.8 assists and 2.5 rebounds per game. Wallace, a starting No. 2 guard, leads the Spartans with an average of 31.0 minutes per game while averaging 11.5 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game.
The Streak Continues
Junior Courtney Hawkins has kept up the torrid scoring pace that helped the 5-4 Greer, S.C., native lead the A-Sun in scoring in 2007-08, as she has started this season with four double-digit efforts. Hawkins now has scored in double-digits in the last 13 Spartan games. In fact, her 14-point effort at Presbyterian in the season opener ended a string of nine straight 15-point games.
The one major difference between the end of last season and the start of this season, though, is the amount of time Hawkins has seen on the floor. In the last nine games of 2007-08, Hawkins averaged 37.8 minutes per game. Through the first four games of this season, Hawkins has needed just 23.3 minutes on the floor to average 15.8 points per game.
Moving On Up
Junior Courtney Hawkins has continued to move up the Spartans' career scoring list, with the 5-4 combo guard using 11 points against Charleston Southern on Nov. 20 to become the 19th player in the program's history to reach 700 career points. Against IUPUI on Nov. 24, Hawkins used 22 points to pass Stephanie Dacus, who scored 716 points from 1991-96. Now, she has her sights set on Angelina Gordon and Ernetta Dailey for a spot in the school's top 15 all-time scorers, entering Wednesday's game just 24 points behind Dailey.
A Look At The Record Book
With five assists in just 14 minutes on Nov. 17 against Montreat, senior Courtney Bradley has her eyes firmly squared on leaving a lasting mark on the Upstate career record book. The 5-5 point guard is third in school history with 331 assists, just four shy of Angelina Gordon's mark of 335 set from 1994-97. Gordon's 335 assists are the school's NCAA-era record, as the school's all-time leader, Suzanne Graham, played when the school was a member of the NAIA.
Bradley's 105 career 3-pointers is just 17 shy of Dawn Bowden's third-best mark set from 1985-89. Her 540 career points are also just 19 outside the school's top 25.
Post Presence
What a difference a year makes. After the Spartans accounted on guards for 76 percent of their scoring in 2007-08, the post players have accounted for 40 percent (126 of 316 points) of the scoring through the first four games. Sophomore Chelsea McMillan has led the way with 52 points in her first four Spartan games while other first time Spartans, sophomore Sam Frost and freshman Chelsey Peterson, have combined for 53 points.
