Another I-26 Rivalry
11/27/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Nov. 27, 2009
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Complete Upstate Game Notes in PDF Format 
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SPARTANBURG, S.C. - After a Tuesday night with a plethora of career highs at S.C. State, the USC Upstate women's basketball team will look to stay in the win column when UNC Asheville comes to the G.B. Hodge Center for a 3 p.m. showdown.
The Spartans (3-2 overall) got a pair of scoring career highs, as freshman Tee'Ara Copney posted 21 points and junior Sharniece Wadelington added 16 in Tuesday's 88-53 win at S.C. State. Junior Chelsea McMillan tied a career-high with 15 rebounds and sophomore Kendra Wallace and Lesley Daniel each notched career highs in assists.
The Bulldogs (2-2 overall) come into the game looking to rebound after a 78-67 loss to Campbell. The team is led by Chioma Okoli, who has averaged 12.0 points and 6.8 rebounds per game. Lindsey Montgomery is adding 11.7 points and 8.7 rebounds per game. Lindsey Thompson also adds 10.8 points and 2.3 assists per contest.
Upstate will look for its first win against the Bulldogs in six meetings. Head coach Tammy George will also look for a win against her former boss, Betsy Blose, as George was an assistant at UNC Asheville in 2002-03, Blose's first season as head coach at Asheville.
Spartan Notables
• The Spartans are 3-6 all-time on Nov. 28, last falling at Catawba, 81-58, in 2001.
• Upstate is 9-6 (.600) in the D-I era (since 2007) in the month of November.
• Upstate is 41-40 (.506) all-time against Big South schools and 23-15 (.605) at the Hodge Center.
• Freshman Tee'Ara Copney tied an Upstate D-I era record with her .818 (9-11) field goal percentage at S.C. State.
• Sophomore Kendra Wallace became the seventh player in school history to reach 80 career 3-pointers with her trey at S.C. State.
• Both sophomores Kendra Wallace and Lesley Daniel posted career highs in assists at S.C. State, with Wallace notching five and Daniel tying her career high with six.
• Junior Chelsea McMillan tied a career-high with 15 rebounds at S.C. State.
• Junior Sharniece Wadelington posted a career-high 15 points at S.C. State.
• Upstate shot .508 from the field at S.C. State, marking the fourth time in the D-I era that Upstate shot 50 percent from the field.
Scouting UNC Asheville
The Bulldogs (2-2 overall) come into the game looking to rebound after a 78-67 loss to Campbell. The team is led by Chioma Okoli, who has averaged 12.0 points and 6.8 rebounds per game. Lindsey Montgomery is adding 11.7 points and 8.7 rebounds per game. Lindsey Thompson also adds 10.8 points and 2.3 assists per contest.
Against Campbell on Tuesday, the Bulldogs were led by Kendall Shepard, who posted 15 points and two assists. Thompson added 14 points and hit four 3-pointers in the game. However, the Bulldogs were hindered by a Camels' team that shot 48.3 percent from the field while they shot just 35.4 percent.
Upstate will look for its first win against the Bulldogs in six meetings. Head coach Tammy George will also look for a win against her former boss, Betsy Blose, as George was an assistant at UNC Asheville in 2002-03, Blose's first season as head coach at Asheville.
Copney's Cause
Freshman Tee'Ara Copney has led USC Upstate in scoring twice already through the first five games, leading the team to wins in both games. Copney, the 2009 Western Carolina Player of the Year, made a quick impact, as she notched 16 points and five steals and led the Spartans back from an 18-point deficit to beat Longwood, 71-59. Three games later, Copney struck again, scoring 21 and hitting all three of her 3-point attempts to lead Upstate to an 88-53 win at S.C. State.
The Balanced Attack
For the second time this season, the Spartans had four players in double figures at S.C. State on Nov. 24, as freshman Tee'Ara Copney scored 21, junior Chelsea McMillan added 16, junior Sharniece Wadelington posted 15 and senior Koko Richardson added 12. The team also had four in double figures in a 71-59 win at Longwood, as Copney scored 16, McMillan and senior Courtney Hawkins each added 15 and Richardson added 13. In the Division I era, the Spartans have placed four in double figures 12 times, doing so twice in 2007-08 and eight times in 2008-09.
C-Mac Attack
Junior Chelsea McMillan has been on a roll since Jan. 15 of last year, when she posted her first career double-double with 31 points and 14 rebounds against Lipscomb. Since that game, the 6-0 forward has averaged14.0 points, 10.0 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game. She has also been consistent from the field, hitting 43.5 (107-246) percent of her shots and outstanding at the free throw line, hitting 88.7 (63-71) percent of her shots in her last 20 games. This season, McMillan has been simply outstanding, averaging 15.4 points and 11.0 rebounds per game, also posting three double-doubles in her first five games.
Wud Up?
Junior Sharniece Wadelington took an awful long road to get from J.L. Mann High School in Greenville to USC Upstate's Spartanburg campus, but the road is starting to pay off for the 5-7 junior guard. Wadelington played two seasons at UNC Greensboro, redshirting her first season before averaging just 8.2 minutes and 1.8 points per game in 2007-08 before deciding to head closer to home and USC Upstate. After an NCAA mandated redshirt season, she has immediately been a huge contributor to the Spartans off the bench, averaging 7.0 points and 3.4 rebounds per game. She has also been a defensive fireplug, as he 2.60 steals per game are fifth in the A-Sun. At S.C. State, Wadelington scored a collegiate career-high 15 points 5-of-6 shooting from the field and she also added three steals for the fourth time this season.
Tee'Ara's Takeaways
Freshman Tee'Ara Copney is listed tied for third in the A-Sun in steals after her fifth career game, thanks to 15 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 each against Indiana State and S.C. 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 16 of Upstate's 38 fastbreak points this year.
Daniel's Dish
Sophomore Lesley Daniel has continued to develop as a point guard for the Spartans, as she enters Saturday's game sixth in the A-Sun, averaging 4.20 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 four four-assist games, including tying a career high with six assists at S.C. State on Nov. 28. 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 nine this year.
The Magic Number
With the 88-53 win at S.C. State, USC Upstate once again proved its magic number remains 70. When the team scores more than 70 points for head coach Tammy George, the Spartans win more than 70 percent of the time in the D-I era. Upstate is 12-5 (.706) in games in which it reaches 70 points, including both its wins during the 2009-10 campaign. Upstate was 7-3 when scoring more than 70 points in 2008-09. The team has lost just once in the D-I era when scoring 80 or more points.
Shooters All
Through the first five games, the Spartan backcourt has shown little fear in stepping back to shoot the three. In fact, six of the players, including four that have hit at least two in two games, have hit two treys in at least one game. Sophomore Kendra Wallace hit three trifectas against North Greenville and added two at Virginia and senior Courtney Hawkins hit two at Longwood and hit three more against Indiana State. Freshman Tee'Ara Copney added two against Longwood and three at S.C. State while sophomore Lesley Daniel hit two trifectas at Virginia and S.C. State. Freshman Morgan Goss connected twice at Virginia and junior Sharniece Wadelington added two more at S.C. State, becoming the sixth guard to hit two treys in a game this year.
Into The Fire
Head coach Tammy George has not been shy about playing freshmen during Upstate's first two years of Division I play. In fact, Upstate's three freshmen in 2008-09 averaged 23.6 minutes of court time per player during the season. Kendra Wallace led the way, playing 1,004 minutes, an average of 34.6 minutes per night. In 2007-08, the Spartans' five freshmen averaged 10.8 minutes per night, but three of them averaged more than 15.0 minutes per game. In the first five games of the 2009-10 season, the four Spartan freshmen have averaged 14.0 minutes, 4.7 points and 2.1 rebounds each per game.
