Hampton, Va. – The Spartans were perfect from the free throw line and Barrett Herring tied and bested career-highs in her fourth consecutive game, but the USC Upstate women's basketball team fell on the road to Hampton University 60-40 Tuesday night.

USC Upstate (6-10, 1-6 BSC) started the contest off with a technical, but Hampton (9-7, 5-2 BSC) was not able to capitalize as the Pirates missed both free throws. Herring won the opening tip and it would take nearly four minutes for either team to get on the board in what ended up being a low-scoring first quarter. Hampton finally opened the scoring in the game on a layup with 6:10 remaining in the frame. A few moments later, Anda Kuzmina hit a pull up shot from Herring to get the Spartans on the board and spark a quick 7-0 run for USC Upstate which was capped by a 3-pointer from Michaela Gibbons for a 7-3 lead. Herring's layup in the final eight seconds closed the first quarter with a 9-5 advantage for the Spartans. In a strong defensive period for USC Upstate, the Spartans held the pirates to just 2-of-16 from the field and outrebounded Hampton 13-11.

The second period saw a lot more scoring as Hampton opened the frame with five early points to go up 10-9. Gibbons immediately answered back with a 3-pointer to retake the lead, and both teams would continue to go back-and-forth over the next few minutes. Kathryn Kirkwood ended a three-minute long scoring drought for both teams with a layup from Kuzmina to go back up by one point (16-15) with 4:31 remaining in the period. Soon after, Hampton took a wide open jumper for a 20-16 lead to force a USC Upstate timeout with 2:41 to go in the first half. The Spartans missed a pair of layups at the end of the period as Hampton closed the frame on a 7-0 run to enter the halftime break with a 22-16 advantage. After the first half, Gibbons led the Spartans with six points while Herring had six rebounds and three blocks.

The Pirates continued their run out of the halftime break, but Riley Popplewell ended it with a layup from Herring a minute into the third quarter. Later on, Jada Logan took a rebound down the court for a layup to make it 28-20 before getting in another layup 37 seconds later. Logan's quick buckets brought the Spartans within six points of the Pirates at 28-22, but USC Upstate couldn't ever seem to diminish Hampton's pesky lead. Despite Logan and Herring preserving USC Upstate's perfect free throw percentage in the game, the Spartans entered the final frame with a 42-32 deficit.

Hampton started to really pull away in the fourth quarter with a pair of runs that the Spartans couldn't recover from. Popplewell had a pair of buckets in the frame and Natalia Panufnik ended the game with a jumper from Breanna Jefferson as the Spartans fell 60-40.
 
Notes
Upstate – Herring led the Spartans across the stat line with 10 points, seven rebounds, three assists, and a tied career-high four blocks. She was 6-of-6 from the charity stripe for a career-high free throws made in a game, which makes four consecutive games where she has either tied or bested a career-high. As a team, USC Upstate was perfect from the free throw line as Logan was 2-of-2 from the line. Popplewell posted eight points and six rebounds, and the Spartans outrebounded the Pirates 40-35.

Hampton – Young led Hampton's offense with 19 points as Vanarsdale and Bates also scored in double-figures with 16 and 13 points, respectively. MaKayla Timmons contributed 12 assists.

UP next for the Spartans
The Spartans continue on the road with a visit to Gardner-Webb University on Saturday, January 18. Tip-off is set for 2:00 p.m. ET in Boiling Springs, N.C.

Tickets
Start at $8.00 (adults), $5.00 (ages 3-17); 864-503-7190 and upstatespartans.com/tickets.

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