Jan. 26, 2009

Final Stats

SPARTANBURG, S.C. - A manic 32-14 run cut the East Tennessee State University lead to nine points with 3:22 remaining, but the USC Upstate women's basketball team couldn't complete the comeback in Atlantic Sun Conference action at the Memorial Center on Monday night, falling to the league leaders, 80-68.

"ETSU is a very good team," Upstate head coach Tammy George said. "They took advantage of our miscues during the first half and made some very nice plays, which is what you expect out of a very good team. For our part, I am really very proud of how the team didn't give up at halftime when we were down 21 or when we fell behind by 28. What we did the last 15 minutes of the game should set the tone for how we want to play the last half of the conference season."

Down60-32 with 12:59 left and down by 26 points with 10:06 left at 65-39, the Spartans (9-9 overall, 4-6 A-Sun) lit up a 20-4 run to cut the lead to 10 at 5:15. The run was started by freshman Kendra Wallace (Hurricane, W.Va./Nitro), who hit back-to-back 3-pointers to cut the lead to 20 points. After a Lady Bucs jumper, junior Kolesia Richardson (Mary Esther, Fla./Santa Fe C.C.) hit a tough bucket in the paint and six straight points from junior Courtney Hawkins (Greer, S.C./Greer) cut the lead to 14 at 67-53. Two free throws from the Bucs stopped the Spartan run momentarily, but Upstate scored six straight points on the strength of a jumper from Richardson, a layup from sophomore Chelsea McMillan (Quincy, Fla./Santa Fe C.C.) and two free throws from Hawkins.

The Bucs (11-7 overall, 9-1 A-Sun) stopped the streak with three straight points, but Upstate scored four in a row as a jumper from the left side from Wallace cut the lead to 72-63 with 3:22 left. That was as close as the Spartans could get though.

The Spartans took a 7-4 lead thanks to its freshmen, with Wallace hitting a wide-open 3-pointer and converting on two free throws and freshman Chelsey Peterson (Irmo, S.C./Dutch Fork) adding a layup. The Bucs controlled the next nine minutes of play, igniting on a 20-2 run, led by seven points from TaRonda Wiles and four from Gwen Washington to take a 24-9 lead before two free throws from sophomore Samantha Frost (Baltimore, Md./North Greeville University) ended the run.

The Spartans cut the lead to 10 points at 28-18 with 5:48 left after an old-fashioned three-point play by Wallace and a driving layup from Peterson. However, the Lady Bucs got hot from 3-point land after that, closing the half on a 17-6 run thanks to threes from Sabrina Treakle and Siarre Evans.

Wallace finished the game with a team-high 19 points, hitting four 3-pointers and becoming the fifth freshman in school history to hit 40 3-pointers in a season. Shooting 4-for-11 from 3-point land to give her 41 on the season, Wallace had 19 points, a rebound and an assist.

Hawkins finished with 13 points, all in the second half, as she went 8-for-10 from the free throw line and added a 3-pointer. She also notched five rebounds, three assists and two steals. Both Frost and McMillan finished with 10 points. McMillan notched six rebounds and Frost added seven rebounds and two blocks.

Peterson added nine points, three rebounds, one assist and two steals and Richardson notched seven points and six rebounds.

Wiles led the Lady Bucs with 20 points and 11 rebounds and Evans added 20 points, 13 rebounds and three assists. Latisha Belcher notched 14 points, eight rebounds and three assists.

The Spartans head to A-Sun foe North Florida for a 7 p.m. game on Thursday. The Spartans will then stay in Jacksonville, Fla., to face Jacksonville on Saturday at 1 p.m.

Notes
- ETSU acknowledged longtime N.C. State head coach Kay Yow, who passed away after a 22-year battle with breast cancer on Saturday, with a moment of silence before the game. Both coaching staffs wore upside down pink ribbons in honor of the coach. The referees also wore pink whistles.
- The Spartans are 3-6 all-time on Jan. 26.
- Freshman Kendra Wallace has hit 3-pointers in 16-of-18 games this season. With 41 3-pointers this season, Wallace is tied with Kianna Smith for third in the Upstate freshman record book and just four 3-pointers shy of senior Courtney Bradley's second-place mark of 45.
- Upstate's first seven points of the game came from freshmen with Kendra Wallace scoring five and Chelsey Peterson adding two.
- The Spartans placed four in double figures in points for the fifth time this season, also doing so against S.C. State, South Carolina, IUPUI and Montreat.