CLINTON, S.C. – Closing out the back half of a home-and-home doubleheader, USC Upstate women's basketball built upon the momentum of its victory Tuesday night, the Spartans went on the road and claimed win number 20 behind an 80-67 victory at Presbyterian.
Winning its 20
th game overall and 12
th in Big South play, Upstate reached the 20-win plateau for the first time since 2015-16. Freshman guard
Rachael Rose propelled the Spartans to a 13-point victory Wednesday night behind a career-high 29 points, posting the third 20-plus point scoring effort of her young career while adding six assists, two rebounds, and two steals to complement her point total.
She was joined in double-figures by three Spartans as redshirt sophomore guard
Chellia Watson, freshman guard
Terah Harness, and senior
Molly Coleman each tallying double-digits contributing 16, 13, and 10 points, respectively.
Game Information
Score: USC Upstate 80; Presbyterian 67
Records: USC Upstate (20-6; 12-3 Big South); Presbyterian (9-16; 4-11 Big South)
Location: Templeton Center | Clinton, S.C.
How It Happened
First Quarter
- Seeing Presbyterian open with the first basket of the game, Upstate quickly answered with an abbreviated 4-0 scoring run behind layups from Molly Coleman and Chellia Watson to earn the lead for the first time.
- After trading the lead one final time, Terah Harness gave the Spartans the lead for good with her three with 6:23 to play in the quarter as Upstate took a 9-7 advantage.
- Building its lead to double-digits near the end of the quarter, Upstate used a 12-4 scoring stretch to take an 11-point lead with 48 seconds to play in the quarter.
Second Quarter
- Following a nearly five-minute stretch that saw the two teams trading baskets, Presbyterian fashioned its longest scoring run of the game, 8-0, to pull the Upstate lead to five and back into single digits.
- Countering the 8-0 scoring run, Rachael Rose took hold of the Spartan scoring for the remainder of the half, starting with a 6-0 run. She added a three-pointer to outscore Presbyterian 9-5 over the final three minutes of the half.
Third Quarter
- Rose continued her streak of consecutive points for the Spartan to open the second half, adding the first two of the third quarter to tally 11 straight Upstate markers.
- Pushing to its largest lead of the game, 14 points, the Spartans used a 6-0 scoring run to reclaim a double-digit advantage.
- Presbyterian trimmed the Upstate lead with a 7-0 scoring run as an answer to the 6-0 scoring spurt. Overall, the Blue Hose outscored the Spartans 10-5 over the final five minutes of the quarter.
Fourth Quarter
- After seeing the lead trimmed to five to open the final quarter, Upstate outscored Presbyterian 7-2 to build the lead back to 10. Rose started the stretch with an and-1 conversion before Coleman and Harness added layups following a Blue Hose field goal.
- Upstate used another 6-0 run later in the quarter to continue its pursuit of a double-digit victory. Again, the 6-0 stretch was spurred by Rose who added another and-1 conversion and a three-pointer in succession.
- Closing the game, Upstate tallied the final four points, with each coming from the free throw line, to secure a 13-point victory.
Notable
- Scoring a career-high 29 points Wednesday night, Rachael Rose secured the third 20-plus point outing of her freshman season. Of her three 20-point games, she's tallied two in Big South play with Wednesday's scoring total joining a 26-point effort versus Gardner-Webb on Jan. 25.
- Securing the team's 20th victory, the team's highest single season win total since winning 22 games during the 2015-16 season. The team's 12 Big South victories are the most in a single season since winning 13 games in the ASUN in 2010-11.
- Seeing four double-figure scorers again Wednesday night, Upstate extended its streak of games with multiple double-figure scorers to 30 games, including all 26 during the 2021-22 season.
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