Thrice As Nice
10/19/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Oct. 19, 2009
SPARTANBURG, S.C. - The USC Upstate basketball teams were ushered into their third year of Division I and Atlantic Sun Conference play in style on Monday night at the Hodge Center, as the teams played part in Midnight Madness 2009 in front of an ardent, excitable overflow crowd of 1,742 fans.
The event started as the first 500 fans received free T-shirts, presented thanks to Upstate's Choices program, encouraging students to make healthy decisions around alcohol and other drugs in order to keep the campus community safe.
The event, which began with a performance by the USC Upstate cheerleaders, served notice as the introduction to USC Upstate's 2009-10 basketball teams, who are both in their third year of Division I play in the Atlantic Sun Conference.
With the lights dim around the arena, the 6th Man Crew, USC Upstate's fan group, entered through the doors of the Hodge Center with the cheerleaders, tossing T-shirts to the crowd.
After an arena-wide chant for the Spartans, the attention of the gym turned to the teams as both the women's and men's teams were introduced. The women were introduced as several threw out T-shirts. The men were introduced to strains of Upstate's own Jamie Lightsey's "Let's Go U," tossing T-shirts to the amped-up crowd.
After the introductions, the marketing department had its first give-away of the night, as a Spartans Fan Pack, featuring a Nike Upstate Spartans basketball signed by men's coach Eddie Payne and women's coach Tammy George, a green Spartan Nike hooded sweatshirt, an Upstate hat and a Thermos flask was handed to a lucky fan. A gift certificate for 50 gallons of full service gas from White's Exxon on Pine Street was also given out.
As the crowd was treated to Papa John's Pizza and Pepsi products handed out by the Spartan Street Team as the 3-point competition was set up. With men's basketball's Zac Rich lost to graduation after winning the past two 3-point titles, the competition was wide open between men's basketball's Josh Chavis and Carter Cook and women's basketball's Kendra Wallace and Lesley Daniel.
Daniel, shooting for Impact, took an early lead, but Wallace, shooting for the Student Ambassadors, came back late and hit five shots from the right side to take the women's semifinal, 8-6. In the men's semifinal, Cook, shooting for the Opportunity Network, started out hot and never cooled down to down Chavis, shooting for the Delta Zeta, 16-11.
In the finals showdown between Wallace and Cook, Wallace started out hot from the right side, ringing up the money ball in the corner to take a 4-1 lead and Cook never was able to catch up, as Wallace won the women's first Battle of the Sexes shootout, 11-7. Ironically, it was Wallace's second Battle of the Sexes 3-point Shootout win, as the Hurricane, W.Va., native also won a challenge during 2008's Cozumel Cup in Cozumel, Mexico with a 3-point specialist from the Cozumel Mariners. Wallace helped to raise $100 for the USC Upstate Student Ambassadors, as she played in their honor.
Then the crowd got a chance to compete against the Spartans, as two fans took the floor to compete against a men's and women's player for a shot to win a $50 gift card at the campus bookstore. The first fan wasn't able to top Lesley Daniel, as Daniel quickly hit her layups, free throws and 3-pointer and Josh Chavis was able to do the same for the men. For just competing, both fans got Nike Upstate Spartans basketballs from the bookstore.
Academy Sports and Outdoors then sponsored a halfcourt shot, with a lucky fan getting a shot at winning a big prize, but coming up just short. The fan still walked away with a $20 gift card from Academy.
Following a giveaway of a Nintendo Wii, the Spartans ceded the court to the Air Elite acrobatic dunk team, where the group from Atlanta thrilled the crowd with a series of mind-boggling trampoline dunks, highlighted by one in which three players leaped off the trampoline, with the first doing a somersault, the second throwing an alley-oop off the boards and the third slamming it home. Four players got involved, with three doing somersaults before the fourth skied over and slammed it home. When all five got involved for the grand finale, two did full 360s, slamming the ball behind them, before the third and fourth hooked it off the glass and the last player did a full somersault to slam it down, capping a thrilling exhibition.
Payne wrapped up the night, saying, "Just the other day, we had an announcement of a major gift to renovate this entire arena, including the things in the back. What we are going to do with this gift, this place is going to be entirely different, new floor, new lights, big scoreboards, video system, sound system, brand new seats. Everything new."
"In the world of college basketball, you don't have to have a big place to have a great place to play," Payne continued. "What I promise you is that there won't be a better place in America to watch a game. What I want you students to do is to come in here and party. Years ago, when the team had a 50-game winning streak right on this floor, we had a group here called the Hodge Hecklers and we want to recreate that. And we want to start that this year. We want you to come to the Hodge Center."
Senior Koko Richardson and junior Josh Chavis each came out to thank the fans for coming out before Chavis led an Upstate Spartans cheer to conclude the night. As the fans left the Hodge Center, they had the opportunity to pick up a free 12-pack of Mountain Dew Game Fuel, presented by Pepsi.
The Upstate men's basketball team looks to build on the momentum from 2008-09 when the Spartans improved both its overall and A-Sun win totals. Nick Schneiders, the Spartans' 7-3 senior center and preseason all-conference team selection, returns to lead the team. He averaged 9.5 points and 6.1 rebounds per game, while leading the conference with a school record 79 blocked shots last year. A strong nucleus of players return for head coach Eddie Payne, now in his eighth season at the helm of the Upstate program and celebrating his 25th year as a collegiate head coach. Juniors Josh Chavis (8.3 ppg) and Mezie Uzochukwu (6.3 ppg) and sophomore De'Marion Gordon (6.9 ppg), who was named to the A-Sun All-Freshman team last year, also return to lead Upstate. The Spartans open the season at Nebraska on Nov. 14 and return to the Hodge Center for their home opener against UNC Greensboro on Nov. 24.
The Upstate women's basketball team is coming off a solid second season on the Division I level in 2008-09. The Spartans, under fifth-year head coach Tammy George, finished the season with 13 wins while posting the 20th best turnaround in all of Division I women's basketball. Last year's newcomers Chelsea McMillian and Kendra Wallace return this season with a solid nucleus of players headed by senior Courtney Hakwins. McMillan, a junior this year, averaged 12.1 points last season, while Wallace, a sophomore, was named to the A-Sun All-Freshman team after averaging 12 points per game. Hawkins scored at an 11.2 ppg clip. The Spartans open the season at home against North Greenville on Nov. 13.
