Johnson's All-Tournament Performance Leads Spartans To Near-Upset Of Oakland
12/21/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 21, 2008
COZUMEL, Mexico - Senior Ebony Johnson (Columbia, S.C./Ridge View) played the role that merited her All-Tournament status, drilling an off-balance 10-foot jumper with 15 seconds left and scoring the last five points of the game for the USC Upstate women's basketball team, but it was Oakland's Jessica Pike that got to be the hero by hitting all four of her free throws in the final 30 seconds to lead the Golden Grizzlies to a 64-60 win over Upstate in the final game of the Cozumel Cup on Saturday night at the Francisco Cordero Nunez Poliforum.
Oakland (7-3 overall) won the Cozumel Cup after also defeating UT San Antonio on Friday night. The Spartans (4-5 overall) fell to Oral Roberts, 82-60, in the first game of the tournament on Friday.
Johnson, who scored eight points in the opener against Oral Roberts, finished with 11 points and eight rebounds to lead the Spartans, as she became the 15th player in school history to reach 400 career rebounds with her first board of the night. Sophomore Chelsea McMillan (Quincy, Fla./Santa Fe C.C.) added 12 points, nine rebounds and five steals and junior Courtney Hawkins (Greer, S.C./Greer) posted a team-high 13 points, four rebounds and two steals. Sophomore Sam Frost (Baltimore, Md./North Greenville University) posted six points and four assists and senior Courtney Bradley (Columbia, S.C./Dutch Fork) posted nine points and three assists, hitting three 3-pointers in the game.
Bradley also passed Angelina Gordon (1994-97) for second in the school's career assists list with her second assist of the night, finishing the game with 337 helpers. Bradley now holds the school's NCAA-era record, as the current school record holder, Suzanne Graham (1983-87) posted all 578 of her assists when the school was part of the NAIA.
Hawkins stepped up and drilled a 3-pointer from the right side to give Upstate a 45-42 lead with 9:54 left in the game. However, the Grizzlies were led back into the game by the outstanding performance from Hanna Reising, who scored 10 straight points, including two two-pointers and two threes that gave the Grizzlies a 52-45 lead with 6:30 left. A jumper from freshman Chelsey Peterson (Irmo, S.C./Dutch Fork) ended the run, but Oakland held a 58-50 advantage with 2:30 left. A 3-pointer from Bradley cut the lead to five and a layup from McMillan made it a three point game with 1:33 left. After a bucket from the Grizzlies, Johnson drilled a 3-pointer to make it 60-58 with 38 seconds left. Pike's four free throws iced the game, though, for Oakland.
"I am very proud of how hard our kids fought tonight," Upstate head coach Tammy George said. "They played intense basketball for 40 minutes and never hung their heads for a second. Oakland is a very tough team and they showed it."
The Spartans started the second half pushing momentum, as Hawkins drove the baseline for a bucket to cut the lead to three and three minutes later, a 3-pointer from Bradley cut the lead to two points with 16:42 left. A Hawkins bucket tied the game at 36 and a second-chance layup from McMillan gave Upstate a 38-36 lead with 15:27 lead. From there the, teams battled into the tie at 42.
After McMillan came into the game in the third minute, she kick started the Spartan offense with two buckets in the paint to give Upstate a 4-2 lead with 17:00 left in the first half. With the score tied at 10 with 11:01 left in the first, the Grizzlies started a 9-0 run led by the second of two straight 3-pointers from Jessica Pike.
The Grizzlies' lead grew to 11 points before the Spartans cut into thanks to six straight free throws followed by a fastbreak layup after a halfcourt steal from Hawkins that made it 25-22 with 2:21 left in the first half. The free throw streak included two each from Wallace and Hawkins. However, the Grizzlies responded with 3-pointers from April Kidd and Jessica Pike, helping them take a 31-26 lead into the locker room.
Melissa Jeletma led the Grizzlies with 16 points and nine rebounds and Jessica Pike posted 15 points, five rebounds and four assists. Hanna Reising posted 13 points and four assists. Brittany Carnago added six points and seven assists and April Kidd notched seven points and eight rebounds.
Upstate will now take two weeks off before again hitting the Hodge Center floor for the first time since Nov. 20 when it hosts Atlantic Sun Conference foe North Florida at 4 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 3. The men's teams at the respective institutions will hit the floor at 1 p.m. to start the conference doubleheader.
