19-Point Second Half Clinches Hawkins' First A-Sun Player of the Week Award
12/1/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 1, 2008
SPARTANBURG, S.C. - Playing on the largest stage of her career last Tuesday, junior Courtney Hawkins (Greer, S.C./Greer) gave one of her finest performances as she scored 22 points to lead the USC Upstate women's basketball team to a come-from-behind 73-63 win over IUPUI at Conseco Fieldhouse, the home of the NBA's Indiana Pacers and the WNBA's Indiana Fever. For her efforts in the game, Hawkins earned the Atlantic Sun Conference's Player of the Week award, the conference office in Macon, Ga., announced Monday.
Hawkins scored 19 of her team-high 22 points in the second half to lead Upstate back from a 3-point halftime deficit to deliver a bit of sweet revenge on the Jags in their debut at Conseco, as the Jags beat the Spartans in Upstate's first Division I home game at the Hodge Center on Nov. 21, 2007.
The Preseason All-Atlantic Sun Conference selection hit three of her four 3-pointers in the half, including one that cut the Jags' lead to one with 16:00 left in the game. She also added back-to-back jumpers later in the half to give Upstate a seven-point lead with 9:36 left, helping seal the game. The 5-4 guard hit 7-of-15 shots from the field, including all four of her 3-point attempts and added five rebounds, three assists and two steals in the win.
It was Hawkins' 13th straight double-digit effort and her 12th career 20-point game. The 2007-08 A-Sun scoring champ, this is the first Player of the Week award in Hawkins' career and the second A-Sun Player of the Week award for the Spartans, as senior Ebony Johnson (Columbia, S.C./Ridge View) also was the A-Sun Co-Player of the Week on Jan. 2. This is the first time that an Upstate women's basketball player has been the outright winner of the award since making the jump and moving to Division I at the start of the 2007-08 season.
Upstate will look for its fifth straight win on Wednesday, Dec. 3 when it travels to Macon, Ga., for its Atlantic Sun Conference opener against Mercer at 5 p.m.
