Feb. 20, 2010

Final Stats

BUIES CREEK, N.C. - Down by five points with 1:55 left in Saturday's Atlantic Sun Conference game at the John W. Pope Convocation Center, the USC Upstate women's basketball team closed the game on a 9-2 run that featured three straight steals to walk out away from Campbell with a 76-74 win, the team's first in Buies Creek.

"That was a great college basketball game," Upstate head coach Tammy George said. "I am proud of how we played in the last two minutes, how poised we were during the stretch. Tee'Ara did not play like a freshman and she really made some great decisions down the stretch. Shadae made a great play, Lesley made a great play. It was a great team win."

Freshman Tee'Ara Copney (Asheville, N.C./T.C. Roberson) solidified her status as a leading A-Sun Freshman of the Year Candidate by taking leading Upstate during the run. She started it by finding sophomore Kendra Wallace (Hurrivane, W.Va./Nitro) open behind the arc for a three-pointer to cut the lead to 72-70. Seconds later, Copney stripped a Camel at midcourt and swooped in for the game-tying layup, forcing Campbell to use its final timeout.

"The last two minutes was really stressful," junior Shadae Thompson said. "I knew we had to play defense. We didn't worry about anything else. We had to play hard defense and that's what we had to do."

However, Upstate wasn't done defensively, with Thompson (Greenville, S.C./Anderson University) stripping a ball at midcourt and getting fouled going in for the layup. She hit her first free throw to give Upstate a one-point lead and then Copney knocked a Camel pass away and sophomore Lesley Daniel (Collinwood, Tenn./Collinwood) came up with the loose ball with 23 seconds left. Daniel found Copney, who was fouled, and the freshman hit both free throws to give Upstate a 75-72 lead.

"I think we were all determined we weren't going to lose the game," Copney said. "It was kind of like Kennesaw State (when Upstate lost a lead in the last 10 seconds to fall 69-68) and we didn't want to let that happen again. Shadae made a big play for us, getting a steal, knocking down a free throw and keeping our defensive energy up."

Campbell (14-13 overall, 9-9 A-Sun) ran the court and Tonisha Baker hit a runner to make it one-point game, but Upstate broke a press and ran seven seconds off the clock before junior Sharniece Wadelington (Greenville, S.C./UNC Greensboro) was fouled. She hit one free throw to ice the win.

The second half featured spurts in momentum, as Campbell took a three-point lead after a bucket by Jazmine Cooper with 19:43 left, but Upstate went on a 10-2 run capped on a three by Copney to take a 46-41 lead. After Campbell got as close as two points, senior Courtney Hawkins (Greer, S.C./Greer) hit two key treys, being fouled on the second one, and she converted a four-point play to give Upstate a 55-46 lead with 14:13 left.

After that, though, the Camels dominated much of the next 10 minutes, turning the nine-point deficit into a seven-point lead at 69-62 thanks to a 23-7 run. While Upstate could manage just three buckets, two from junior Chelsea McMillan (East Gadsden, Fla./Santa Fe C.C.) and a free throw during the run, the Camels hit eight field goals and had five free throws in the run. Courtney Cannon led the charge with nine points during the run.

"We just had to push through," McMillan said, "but that's how we practice. We practice hard so we can push through in games like this."

Upstate cut the lead to four points with 3:41 left after a trey by Daniel, one of Upstate's nine in the game and the team's each traded two points from posts Ashley Williamson and McMillan. A free throw from Amanda O'Neill gave Campbell a 72-67 lead with 1:55 left.

In the first half, the team's fought back and forth, with neither team gaining much momentum thanks to 38 combined turnovers. The Spartans used a 9-1 run that helped Upstate take an 18-12 lead with 11:02 left in the first half. The run, which lasted just more than 1:40 featured two assists from Copney and four points from Thompson. The Camels cut the lead to two points at 23-21 after a jumper by Courtney Cannon with 6:53 left, but a MicMillan layup and 3-pointer from Copney opened the lead back up to seven points at 28-21. Howerver, the Camels used a 14-2 run that was capped by four straight points from Tonisha Baker to give the Camels a 35-30 lead with 2:49 left. Upstate cut the lead to one point at the half with a 6-2 run started with a midcourt steal by Copney and capped by a jumper from Hawkins with 15 seconds left.

Copney led all scorers with 18 points, also adding five assists, four steals and three rebounds and McMillan contributed 14 points and tied a career-high with 16 rebounds. She also added two assists, two blocks and four steals. Wallace posted 10 points and two assists, canning two threes. Hawkins posted nine points and three steals and Thompson added eight points, seven rebounds, three assists and two steals. Both Daniel and senior Koko Richardson (Mary Esther, Fla./Santa Fe C.C.) added seven points.

Campbell was led by 13 points, four assists and five boards from Monique Spry while both Williamson and Baker finished with 12 points. Williamson added 10 rebounds and Baker posted five assists, six steals and seven rebounds. Cannon added 10 points and five rebounds and Jazmine Cooper posted nine points and eight boards.

The Spartans will now get set to head to ETSU for the final road game of the season on Monday, Feb. 22 at 7 p.m.

Notes:
• The Spartans are 8-3 all-time on Feb. 18.

• Junior Chelsea McMillan is currently tied for fifth in school history with 285 rebounds this season.

• Freshman Tee'Ara Copney has canned 14 3-pointers in the last four games.

• Junior Chelsea McMillan is just two blocks away from becoming the second player in school history to block 50 shots in a season, where she would join Yakeeshia Ross (2002-06), who did it twice.

• Junior Chelsea McMillan became the 11th player in school history to reach 500 career boards with her sixth of 16 on the night.

• Freshman Tee'Ara Copney became the fifth freshman in school history to post 60 thefts with her second of four thefts.

• Saturday was senior Koko Richardson's 22nd birthday ... The Spartans are 4-1 this year when playing on a team member or coach's birthday this season.