Contrasting Styles Set For Saturday Showdown At The Hodge
12/31/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 31, 2008
ASun.TV | Gametracker
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SPARTANBURG, S.C. - There's no doubt that the USC Upstate women's basketball team faced its challenges during its current five-game skid, having faced four teams with winning records and two that made the postseason in 2007-08. Now, the team will enter the New Year staring at the meat of the Atlantic Sun Conference schedule ahead of it, starting with North Florida, which visits the Hodge Center for a men's and women's doubleheader on Saturday. The men's game tips at 1 p.m. with the women set for a 4 p.m. start.
The Spartans (4-5, 0-2) will look to get their high-powered offense (second in the A-Sun at 70.1 points per game) back on track after averaging 60.0 points per game in its last two outings.
However, Upstate will face a tough test in UNF, which defeated the Spartans, 47-38, in a defensive struggle at UNF Arena in their first meeting as DI schools on Jan. 28, 2008.
The Lady Ospreys (2-9, 1-1) will look to end a six-game skid of their own and try to get its own struggling offense (48.4 points per game, last in the A-Sun) back on track.
Notes
• The Spartans are at the start of the busiest stretch of their schedule, as they are set to play five games in the next eight days.
• Senior Courtney Bradley set the Upstate NCAA-era record for career assists with her three helpers against Oakland giving her 337 in her career.
• Junior Courtney Hawkins became the 16th player at USC Upstate to post 750 career points with her 13-point game against Oakland.
• Senior Ebony Johnson became the 15th player at Upstate with 400 rebounds in a career with her eight-rebound effort against Oakland.
• Sophomore Chelsea McMillan had a team-season-high five swipes against Oakland.
• Senior Ebony Johnson has a blocked shot in each of her last three games.
• Freshman Kendra Wallace needs just one point to become the 50th freshman in school history to reach 100 points.
• Junior Courtney Hawkins 2.21 assist-to-turnover ration is currently tied for 21st in Division I and leads the A-Sun.
Moving On Up
Junior Courtney Hawkins has continued to move up the Spartans' career scoring list, with the 5-4 combo guard using 12 points against Oakland on Dec. 20 to become the 16th player in school history to reach 750 career points. During the game, she passed Ernetta Dailey (1985-87), moving into 15th in school history in career points. Now, Hawkins needs to score just eight points to move past Sharon McDowell (1985-87), who scored 765 career points.
Eb and Flow
Senior Ebony Johnson earned a spot on the Cozumel Cup All-Tournament Team thanks to an 11-point, eight-rebound effort against Oakland. Both were season-highs for the guard. She hit a 3-pointer and an off-balance jumper in the final minute to help Upstate pull within two points twice in the 64-60 loss. She scored eight points and had two rebounds and two steals in 19 minutes against defending Summit League champions, Oral Roberts.
She also became the 15th player in school history to reach 400 career rebounds with her first board of the night. At 5-7, she is the second shortest in school history to reach the 400-board mark. Tomracida Crawford (1980-84) is the shortest player, at 5-5, to reach 400 career rebounds, posting 520 in her career.
A Look At The Record Book
Senior Courtney Bradley added one more mark to an already accomplished career as an Upstate point guard on Dec. 20, as the 5-5 point guard passed Angelina Gordon's mark of 335 career assists from 1994-97. In the process, Bradley, who had three helpers in the game, set the school's NCAA-era record for assists and moved into second in the school's all-time record book with 337 assists. The school's all-time leader, Suzanne Graham, played when the school was a member of the NAIA.
Bradley's 110 career 3-pointers is just 12 shy of Dawn Bowden's third-best mark set from 1985-89. Her 559 career points are also just 10 outside the school's top 25.
Is She The Same Old Hawk?
For some watching the Spartans this season, it may be easy to conclude that junior Courtney Hawkins is not the same player that she was in 2007-08 when she led the A-Sun in scoring, averaging 16.4 points per game, and scored more than 19 points per game in A-Sun play. After all, Hawkins entered the week 21st in the conference in scoring, averaging 10.4 points per game.
Before throwing out the caution flag, through, consider these couple nuggets about the Preseason All-A-Sun guard:
• In the last nine games of 2007-08, Hawkins averaged 37.8 minutes per game to average 21.9 points, firing an average of 17.5 shots per game. Through the first nine games of this season, Hawkins has needed just 26.3 minutes and 9.1 shots per game to average 10.4 points.
• While her shots and minutes have fallen, Hawkins' assists and assist-to-turnover ratio have risen, starting to make her into a fine point guard. Averaging 3.4 assists per game (fourth in the A-Sun), her 2.21 assist-to-turnover ratio is 21st in the country and leads the conference.
A Rejection A Day
Senior guard Ebony Johnson has blocked a shot in each of the last three games, recording a rejection against South Carolina (Dec. 16), Oral Roberts (Dec. 19) and Oakland (Dec. 20). A 5-7 combo guard, Johnson has moved into ninth in the school's career record book with 33 career blocked shots, including her three this season. The shortest player amongst Upstate's career blocked shots leaders, Johnson has only blocked a shot in three consecutive games once before, doing so from Feb. 18-25, 2008.
New Kids On The Block
One year after finishing next-to-last in the A-Sun in blocked shots, the Spartans enter the new year second in the league in the category, averaging 3.44 rejections per game. With its 31 rejections through the first nine games, the team is already almost past its total of 42 blocked shots during the 2007-08 season. The drastic turnaround can be attributed to the addition of two of the best shot-blockers in the league in sophomores Chelsea McMillan and Sam Frost. Frost, with 11 blocked shots, is third in the league and McMillan, with nine rejections, is fifth.
Frost Heats Others Up
Sophomore Sam Frost may have gotten a cool reception from the baskets in Cozumel during the Cozumel Cup, but that didn't keep the 6-0 post from contributing to the team. Instead, the Baltimore, Md., native used her passing game to help the Spartans, as she notched back-to-back career-highs in assists, notching three helpers against Oral Roberts before adding four dimes the next night against Oakland. In the process, Frost moved into a tie for fifth on the team, averaging 1.4 assists per game.
