Jan. 24, 2009

Final Stats

SPARTANBURG, S.C. - Junior Courtney Hawkins (Greer, S.C./Greer) missed the front end of a pair of free throws with 3:40 left, but the USC Upstate women's basketball team hit the next 11 in a row, with five coming from Hawkins, to key a late 16-4 run that lifted it to a 69-61 win over Campbell in Atlantic Sun Conference action on Saturday at the Hodge Center.

"I am very proud of how poised our team was in the last four minutes," Upstate head coach Tammy George said. "We did a tremendous job of not panicking and doing the small things to win (Saturday). Everyone stepped up, played great defense, forcing a bunch of turnovers, and then we won the game at the free-throw line. It was a great team win."

Down 57-53 with after two free throws from Campbell's Ashley Williamson with 3:59 left, the Spartans (9-8 overall, 4-5 A-Sun) overtook the Camels (9-10 overall, 2-8 A-Sun) thanks to a 10-for-12 (83 percent) performance from the charity stripe and a 2-for-3 effort from the floor. Meanwhile, the Camels hit 1-of-8 (13 percent) from the floor and committed four turnovers in that same time.

Hawkins hit the second of her free throws at the 3:40 mark and after four Camels misses, freshman Chelsey Peterson (Irmo, S.C./Dutch Fork) swiped a ball from the Camels in the paint. After a near turnover by the Spartans saw the ball kicked out of bounds with one second on the shot clock, junior Kolesia Richardson (Mary Esther, Fla./Santa Fe C.C.) found Peterson on the inbounds, where the 5-11 forward caught the ball under the hoop and completed the layup from the right side, making it a one-point game with 2:56 left.

Freshman Kendra Wallace (Hurricane, W.Va./Nitro) came up with a steal and an outlet pass found a streaking Hawkins heading to the basket where she was fouled. Hawkins converted both free throws, giving the Spartans a 58-57 lead with 2:31 left.

"We all knew that it was probably going to come down to free throws," McMillan said of Hawkins' end-of-game play. "We just told Courtney to drive in and then be confident with her free throws. The last couple games, she had struggled a little at the game, but that was in the past. We just told her to keep her head up and knock them down and win the game."

The Camels then fell victim to sophomore Chelsea McMillan (Quincy, Fla./Santa Fe C.C.), who blocked her only shot of the game and grabbed her own rebound on the next play, and then converted both free throws after being fouled after controlling her own rebound, giving Upstate a 3-point lead.

Two free throws from Lauren Yesh cut the lead to one point with 2:04 left, but both teams traded missed shots and a Camels' foul put Hawkins back on the line, where she hit both shots. A layup from Yesh cut the lead back to one point, but Richardson answered with a 16-footer at the top of the key with 26 seconds left, making it 54-61. A layup by the Camels fell off the rim where Wallace got the rebound and converted both free throws with eight seconds left. Richardson then capped off the Spartan win by hitting 3-of-4 from the charity stripe in the waning five seconds.

The two teams battled evenly throughout with the score being tied nine times and the lead changing 12 times with the largest lead of the night being the final margin of eight points.

Upstate built a 14-9 lead in the first half after an open 3-pointer from Hawkins, but the Camels responded with a 9-0 run over the next three minutes to hold an 18-14 lead with 9:24 left. Campbell's lead grew to five after a 3-pointer from Lauren Arthur, but Upstate responded by scoring six straight points on layups from Peterson and senior Cherale Powell (Wilkesboro, N.C./Wilkes C.C.) and two free throws from McMillan. The teams then exchanged the lead twice more before a 3-pointer from Kate Cloxton and a layup from Katelyn Bass gave Campbell a 28-24 lead with 2:19 left.

The Spartans closed the half on a 5-0 run though, as McMillan hit two free throws with 1:15 left and after a missed Camels trey, Wallace responded by dribbling into the key and then backing out where she hit a trey, sending Upstate to the locker room with a 29-28 lead.

Wallace opened the second half with a 3-pointer for the Spartans as well and Upstate's lead grew to as much as five points before the Camels came back with five straight points capped by a layup from Jessica Mack to take a 37-36 lead with 14:22 left. Wallace again answered with a three pointer and the teams fought through three ties before the Camels used a 6-0 run to take a 50-44 lead with 7:15 left after a layup from Williamson.

A Hawkins 3-pointer cut the lead to three and a layup from Peterson and two Hawkins free throws made it a one-point game with 5:10 left, but an old-fashioned three-point play from Mack made it 55-51 with 4:52 left. The teams traded two points each before Upstate started its game-clinching run.

McMillan finished with 16 points, 10 rebounds and a block for her second double-double in the last three games.

"All we have to do is throw the ball and she'll go get it," Hawkins said of McMillan. "It's tough to hang with her one-on-one and even when she's double-teamed, she'll still get the ball in the hoop. If we can get the ball to her, she'll do something with it every time."

Hawkins posted 15 points, five rebounds, four assists and four steals and Wallace notched 14 points, on the strength of four 3-pointers, to go with three rebounds and two assists.

"If we can get Kendra to start scoring and C-Mac to start scoring, we're in good shape," Hawkins added.

Richardson notched nine points, two rebounds and two assists and Peterson finished with seven points, three rebounds and a steal.

The Camels were led by a career-high 21 points from Geami Britt, who also added two assists and five rebounds. Yesh notched 14 points and seven rebounds and Williamson added seven points and 10 rebounds. Mack added nine points.

Upstate heads to A-Sun leading East Tennessee State for a 4 p.m. game on Monday that will be followed by the school's men's teams playing at 7 p.m. as part of a doubleheader. The men's game will be shown on CSS as the A-Sun Game of the Week.

Notes
- The USC Upstate athletic department observed a moment of silence before the game for N.C. State women's basketball head coach Kay Yow, who passed away after a 22-year battle with breast cancer this morning.
- The Spartans are 8-7 all-time on Jan. 24.
- Freshman Kendra Wallace has hit 3-pointers in 15 of 17 games this season. With 37 3-pointers this season, Wallace is one 3-pointers shy of Stephanie Feyes' mark of 38 in 2001-02, which is fifth in the Upstate freshman record book.
- Wallace passed sophomore Tiffany Whiting for sixth in the Upstate freshman record book with her 37 3-pointers made during the game. Whiting hit 34 treys in 2007-08.
- Sophomore Chelsea McMillan blocked her 27th shot of the season, moving three shy of the top 10 in the school's single-season record book.
- Freshman Kendra Wallace blocked the first shot of her career in the first half.
- Junior Courtney Hawkins is averaging 26.7 points against the Camels in three career games.
- Hawkins moved into a tie with Angelina Gordon (1993-97) for 12th in school history with 135 career steals with her four steals.
- Hawkins hit two 3-pointers for the fourth time this season, doing so in three attempts.
- Upstate shot 76 percent (22-for-29) from the free throw line overall, but finished the game by hitting 10-of-12 (83 percent).