Feb. 29, 2008

A-Sun.TV | Gametracker
Complete ETSU Game Notes in PDF Format

SPARTANBURG, S.C. - The USC Upstate women's basketball team wraps up the 2007-08 season with a Saturday matinee with regular-season champs East Tennessee State. The game is part of a doubleheader with the men's basketball programs, tipping at 1 p.m. before the men tip at 4 p.m.

USC Upstate, which enters the game at 5-23 overall and 1-14 in the A-Sun, will give sophomore Courtney Hawkins one more chance at overtaking Jacksonville's Ashley Williams for the conference scoring title. At 16.1 points per game, Hawkins is two-tenths of a point behind Williams, although she does have the two highest single-game titles in the league this year, including scoring 25 at Campbell on Monday.

ETSU, which is 17-11 overall and 13-2 in the A-Sun, enters Saturday having wrapped up the Atlantic Sun regular season title, beating Gardner-Webb, 88-76, on Monday, to wrap up their first regular season title under head coach Karen Kemp. They will be the No. 1 seed during the Atlantic Sun Conference Championships at Lipscomb that begins Thursday.

Sophomore Siarre Evans leads the Lady Bucs, averaging 13.8 points and 7.3 rebounds per game. She posted 17 points and five rebounds against Gardner-Webb on Monday.

The Lady Bucs lead the series with the Spartans, 1-0, winning the first meeting, 96-55, on Jan. 5.

Spartan Notables
• The Spartans are 3-2 all-time on March 1, last falling to North Florida, 59-57, in 2005 during the Peach Belt Tournament.
• Upstate is 4-1 all-time in the Hodge Center in the month of March.
• Sophomore Courtney Hawkins fell one short of the school single-game record with her 35 points at Campbell.
• Freshman Tiffany Whiting has drained 34 3-pointers this season, the sixth-best total in Upstate's freshman record book.
• Sophomore Courtney Hawkins is tied for 10th in the school record book with 41 3-pointers hit that year.
• Sophomore Courtney Hawkins has posted eight straight games of 15 or more points, the longest streak of her career.
• Junior Ebony Johnson enters Saturday's game one point shy of becoming the third Spartan to reach 500 career points this year.
• Sophomore Courtney Hawkins has a .793 free throw percentage, the highest-ever for Upstate players who hit more than 100 free throws in a season.
• Sophomore Shanea Wyant will likely start her 28th game on Saturday, which is tied for eighth-most in school history.
• Junior Ebony Johnson is the only player in the country 5-7 or shorter that is averaging 7.0 rebounds per game.