Warming Up: Upstate Heads South Of Border For Cozumel Cup
12/16/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 16, 2008
Complete
Cozumel Cup Game Notes in PDF Format 
SPARTANBURG, S.C. - Starting at 6 a.m. on Wednesday, the USC Upstate women's basketball team will be in for an experience unlike anything that any other group of student-athletes at Upstate has ever been a part of, as the team travels to Cozumel, Mexico for two games as part of the Cozumel Cup. The games will be the first time that USC Upstate has sent an athletic team out of the country for games.
The Spartans (4-2 overall) will face two difficult tests during their six-day trip to Cozumel, as they face two Summit League powers in Oral Roberts (Friday at 5 p.m. CT) and Oakland (Saturday at 7:30 p.m. CT). Oral Roberts (5-5 overall) went 19-14 in 2007-08 and Oakland (6-3 overall) finished last year with a 20-13 mark. The Spartans, meanwhile, will counter with one of the best outside shooting teams in the country.
Notes
• The Spartans two games in Cozumel mark the end of a
four-game stretch in seven-day span.
• This is the first time any USC Upstate athletics program
has competed outside the United States.
• The Spartans had three players score in double figures at
South Carolina for the third time this season.
• Upstate entered the week leading the A-Sun and all Division
I schools in 3-point field goal percentage, hitting 47.7 percent
(41-for-86).
• Freshmen Kendra Wallace has
hit a 3-pointer in each of the last six games.
• Senior Ebony Johnson needs
three rebounds to become the 15th player at Upstate with 400 in a
career.
• Junior Courtney Hawkins
needs 11 points to become the 16th player in school history to
reach 750 career points.
Four For
Efforts
Four USC Upstate players finished in double digits against South
Carolina on Dec. 16, with sophomore Chelsea McMillan
finishing with 16 points, junior Courtney Hawkins
posting 13, freshman Kendra Wallace
posting 11 and sophomore Sam Frost scoring 10. It was the third
time this season the Spartans featured four players with 10 or more
points, also doing so against Montreat and at IUPUI. The team has
reached the mark five times in the DI era and the second time the
team did so against a Southeastern Conference team. Against
Kentucky on Nov. 10, 2007, the school's first DI game, Courtney
Bradley, Oceana Jackson, Tiffany
Whiting and Ebony Johnson each
finished with at least 10 points.
C-Mac's Big
Half
Sophomore Chelsea McMillan
scored the first 13 points of the game for Upstate against South
Carolina on Dec. 16 before freshman Kendra Wallace hit
a jumper in the paint with 7:29 left in the first half. The 6-0
forward finished the first half with 15 points, the second-best
first half performance in Upstate's Division I era. Courtney Hawkins
posted 17 points in the first half against Jacksonville on Jan. 25,
2008. She finished the game with 16 points and eight rebounds, just
two points away from becoming the first player on the team to reach
100 this season.
