Upstate Heads To S.C. State For In-State Showdown
11/23/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Nov. 23, 2009
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Complete S.C. State Game Notes in PDF Format 
SPARTANBURG, S.C. - After two tough losses against a pair of the top programs in women's basketball, the USC Upstate women's basketball team will get back on the court looking to get back into the win column win it travels to S.C. State for a 7 p.m. Tuesday contest at Smith-Hammond-Middleton Memorial Center.
Upstate (2-2), after losses at No. 12/17 Virginia and to Indiana State, will look to reinforce its defensive intensity against the Lady Bulldogs, after giving up 190 points in the last two contests after giving up just 96 in the first two games.
The team does have a few bright spots defensively, though, with both freshmen Tee'Ara Copney and Sharniece Wadelington in the top 10 in the A-Sun in steals and junior Chelsea McMillan in the top five in both blocked shots and rebounds.
S.C. State (2-1), meanwhile, is the third straight opponent that Upstate has faced with a winning record, as the Lady Bulldogs have beaten Savannah State and Furman this year. Sophilia Hipps has led S.C. State, averaging 18.3 points and 8.0 rebounds, but three other players also average at least eight points for the Bulldogs in a balanced attack.
Spartan Notables
• The Spartans are 3-3 all-time on Nov. 24, last beating Limestone, 59-56, in 2007.
• Upstate is 8-6 in the D-I era (since 2007) in the month of November.
• Sophomore Kendra Wallace is 18 points away from becoming the 53rd player in school history to reach 400 in her career.
• Sophomore Kendra Wallace needs to hit just one more 3-pointer to become the seventh player in school history to reach 80 in a career.
• Junior Chelsea McMillan became the sixth player to reach 50 in an Upstate career with her third of four blocked shots against Indiana State.
• Senior Courtney Hawkins has posted 49 career double-digit scoring efforts.
• Senior Courtney Hawkins is just three steals away from reaching seventh on the school's all-time takeaway chart, entering the game with 158 thefts.
• Three Upstate players (Sharniece Wadelington, Lauren McRoberts and Tee'Ara Copney) are averaging at least 5.0 points per game off the bench.
• Upstate is 6-7 all-time against schools from the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, but they are 2-1 since moving to D-I in 2007.
Shooters All
Through the first four games, the Spartan backcourt has shown little fear in stepping back to shoot the three. In fact, five of the players, led by sophomore Kendra Wallace and senior Courtney Hawkins have hit two treys in at least one game. Wallace hit three trifectas against North Greenville and added two at Virginia and Hawkins hit two at Longwood and hit three more against Indiana State. Freshman Tee'Ara Copney added two against Longwood and sophomore Lesley Daniel and freshman Morgan Goss each connected twice at Virginia.
Next Up
After senior Courtney Hawkins passed the 1,000-point mark during the first game against North Greenville on Nov. 13, she set her sights on moving up the career scoring list and she has quickly moved up the list. The 5-4 senior is 57 points shy of reaching the top 10 in school history and she is currently tied with Stephanie Feyes' mark of 1,041 points, scored from 2001-05.
All-Time Thievery
Senior Courtney Hawkins cracked the career top 10 in steals at Upstate with her three thefts against Indiana State on Nov. 24 and she has quickly moved up the list, ending the game tied for eighth, having posted 158 in her career. A play-making guard, Hawkins has routinely been assigned an opponent's top guard and been asked to stop her. Hawkins needs just 42 steals during her senior year to become the third player in school history to reach 200 career thefts.
The Downtown Train
The 2009-10 Spartans already have a pair of players in the all-time top 10 in career 3-pointers and each will look to become just the fifth and sixth players to reach 100 career 3-pointers in an Upstate uniform during the season. Senior Courtney Hawkins is currently fifth in school history with 97 threes, needing just three more to reach the mark. Sophomore Kendra Wallace, after hitting 72 as a freshman, is already tied for seventh in school history after tying Shannon Pallardy (2002-06) by hitting a trifectas against Indiana State. She needs 21 to reach 100 career trifectas.
Rejected
Already this season, junior Chelsea McMillan has moved up two slots on the all-time blocked shots list at Upstate, as she enters Tuesday's game sixth with 51 career blocked shots. Her three blocked shots in the season opener against North Greenville on Nov. 13 moved her into seventh place and her four blocks against Indiana State moved her into sixth on Upstate's all-time list. McMillan, in just her second year with the program, will look to keep moving up the all-time list, as she needs just one block to tie Sherry Clark (1993-95) for fifth in school history.
The Night For The Rookies
In January, when the Spartans faced the Lady Bulldogs, it was the pair of Upstate's then-freshmen Lesley Daniel and Kendra Wallace that led the team to a 90-80 win. Wallace, who had hit just five of 25 (.200) 3-point attempts heading into the game, broke out of the slump in a big way against the Bulldogs, draining 6-of-7 (86 percent) of her 3-point attempts, helping her finish with a career-high 31 points. She also added a perfect 7-for-7 night from the free-throw line and hit three 2-pointers in the game. Daniel, who iced the game with a late steal and a lay-up, posted her career-high 14 points to go with five rebounds, an assist and a steal in the win.
Tee'Ara's Takeaways
Freshman Tee'Ara Copney is listed tied for third in the A-Sun in steals after her fourth career game, thanks to 12 steals in those contests. The freshman guard pick-pocketed North Greenville three times and then against Longwood, she had five takeaways, before posting one steal at Virginia and three more against Indiana State. The steals aren't the only remarkable part of Copney's game, as those steals have led to a lot of easy lay-ups, with Copney responsible for 12 of Upstate's 28 fastbreak points this year.
Daniel's Dish
Sophomore Lesley Daniel has continued to develop as a point guard for the Spartans, as she enters Tuesday's game fifth in the A-Sun, averaging 3.75 assists per game. Amazingly, Daniel is just eight months removed from a knee injury that took her from the court for the last four games of her freshman year. The 5-5 southpaw has posted three four-assist games, including dishing out five against Indiana State on Nov. 24. Daniel is a gritty, hard-nosed ballhandler as a freshman that also has an ability to score in bunches, as she notched five 10-point games during 2008-09, although her season-high is eight this year.
