Washington, D.C. – The USC Upstate women's basketball team suffered an 83-56 setback to the George Washington Colonials Monday evening in non-conference action at the Charles E. Smith Center.

The Spartans fall to 3-4 on the season while the Colonials improve to 3-1 overall.

Brittany Starling finished with a team-high 12 points for Upstate and fell just shy of her second double-double of the season after grabbing eight rebounds. Brittany Clency, making her first start of the season, added nine points and Lauren Bogle contributed a career-high eight off the bench.

Upstate went into the locker room trailing 47-29 after going 9-of-27 (33.3%) from the field and was 10-for-11 (90.9%) at the charity stripe. George Washington opened the game on a 7-2 run over the first 2:31 after a three-pointer from Danni Jackson. After Starling's layup cut the lead to three, the Colonials scored the next 11 points to increase their advantage to 18-6. George Washington made it a 21-point contest, 36-15, at the 5:54 mark on Megan Nipe's jumper, and later held its largest lead of the half at 45-21 on DeLacy Anderson's layup.

The Spartans would hold the Colonials without a basket over the final 2:06 and trimmed their deficit to 18 points going into intermission. The only GW points came on two free-throws by Jackson. Upstate finished on an 8-2 run capped by Alex Stanford's layup with 14 seconds remaining.

Starling led the Spartans with 10 points on 3-of-5 shooting and was a perfect 4-for-4 at the free-throw line. Jackson had 14 points for George Washington.

Upstate began the second half on a 6-0 run over the first two minutes to cut into the lead 47-35 after Clency's jumper. That would be as close at the Spartans could get as the Colonials answered with a 9-2 run to push their lead back to 19 points at 56-37. George Washington increased its lead to 25 points, 72-47, on Caira Washington's three-point play at the 7:04 mark. Shannon Cranshaw's first free-throw gave the Colonials their largest lead of the game, 83-50, with just under two minutes remaining.

Upstate recorded the game's final six points to end with an 83-56 score. Paris Johnson scored four of the six points during the last 1:42 on back-to-back layups.

The Spartans finished 21-of-57 (36.8%) from the floor and 13-of-16 (81.3%) at the free-throw line. George Washington was 28-of-69 (40.6%) overall and 20-for-27 (74.1%) behind the charity stripe.

Upstate held a 6-4 advantage in fast break points and tied the Colonials 28-28 in points in the paint.

Jackson led all scorers with 19 points for George Washington and was one of three players to finish in double figures.

The Spartans return to action Sunday, Dec. 1 at 2 p.m. when they travel to Bloomington, Ind. to face the Indiana Hoosiers.

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