Box Score (.pdf)

Spartanburg, S.C. – Whitney Knight scored 26 points to lead #22/24 Florida Gulf Coast to a 75-59 victory over USC Upstate Saturday afternoon in A-Sun women's basketball action inside the Hodge Center.

Upstate falls to 13-14 overall and 5-7 in the A-Sun, while FGCU improves to 25-2 on the season and 12-0 in conference play.

Brittany Clency led the Spartans with 16 points on 7-of-11 shooting and added four rebounds, three assists, one block and one steal. Brittany Starling finished with 15 points, including seven from the charity stripe, and seven rebounds. Sharmayne Edwards collected eight points and Maddie Herr had seven. Travonda Haddock tied Starling for the team-lead with seven rebounds.

Knight went 8-of-14 from the field and connected on 6-of-9 three-point attempts. She also had eight rebounds and was one of three players to finish in double-figures. Kaneisha Atwater scored 17 points and Katie Meador went 6-for-7 shooting for 12 points.

Florida Gulf Coast opened the game on an 11-4 run over the first 5:05 and led by seven after a three by Knight. Following a media timeout, the Spartans scored the next six points to trim their deficit down to 11-10 at the 12:22 mark as Starling, Clency and Raven Jefferson each had a basket. The Eagles answered with a 9-0 run over the ensuing 1:52 to push their lead out to 20-10. Knight and Taylor Gradinjan used back-to-back three's to give FGCU the 10-point cushion with 10:04 remaining.

The Eagles led by double-digits for a majority of the half after that with Upstate getting as close as eight, 39-31, during that stretch. After Edwards put the score at 29-20 with 4:56 left, Knight recorded eight of the next 10 points to give Florida Gulf Coast a 39-24 advantage with 2:15 to go. The Spartans responded by scoring seven straight points to trim their deficit down to seven with just 21 seconds left before intermission. A pair of free-throws by Knight sent FGCU into halftime ahead 41-31.

Florida Gulf Coast came out of the locker room and quickly went ahead 46-31 after a three by Atwater and Knight's jumper. The Eagles took their largest lead of the game at the 10:43 mark when a three-point play by Atwater put FGCU in front 61-42. Upstate used an 8-0 run over a 3:17 stretch to cut Florida Gulf Coast's lead down to 61-50 following a field goal from Edwards.

FGCU held off the Spartan charge and improved its lead to 66-52 with 4:07 left. Upstate was only able to get as close as 66-56 at the 3:29 mark on a layup by Kristen Dickerson. Florida Gulf Coast hit on three straight three-pointers to take a 75-56 lead with less than a minute left in the contest. Starling and Dickerson scored the game's final three points to place the final score at 75-59.

The Spartans finished the game shooting 24-of-57 (42.1%) overall and made nine of their 10 free-throw attempts for a 90.0% clip. The Eagles went 27-of-59 (45.8%) from the field and 10-of-26 (38.5%) behind the three-point line.

Upstate closes out its road schedule Wednesday, Feb. 25 at 7:30 p.m. when it travels to Nashville, Tenn. to face Lipscomb.

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