Spartanburg, S.C. - Senior forward Ashli Jackson (Opelika, Ala.) scored a career-high 25 points and moved up to third on the Stetson all-time three-point field goal list and junior guard Tierra Brown (Orlando, Fla.) added 17 points, five rebounds and four assists, but hot-shooting host USC Upstate (20-9, 14-6 Atlantic Sun) defeated Stetson (6-23, 6-14 A-Sun) 88-72 in the women's basketball regular season finale for both squads. The 72 points represented a season high for the Hatters, who will be the #8 seed in next week's General Shale Brick Atlantic Sun Conference Championships.
Stetson will take on #1 seed and A-Sun regular season champion ETSU (20-8, 18-2 A-Sun) at noon Wednesday in the quarterfinals. The tournament will be held at Mercer's University Center in Macon, Georgia.
Jackson made nine of 15 field goal attempts, including four of nine from beyond the arc, to lead all scorers. She now has 96 trifectas for her career and today passed Audrey Kull '01 into third place in program history. Her former career scoring high was 23 points against Mercer two seasons ago.
Junior center Natasha Graboski (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) approached a double-double in just 17 minutes before fouling out, recording 10 points and seven rebounds. Freshman guard Dashauna Truss (Jacksonville, Fla.) scored eight points while freshman forwards Janelle Mills (Wesley Chapel, Fla.) and Simone Taylor (Delray Beach, Fla.) pulled down six rebounds apiece.
Five Spartans scored in double figures to lead USC Upstate to its first 20-win season in 15 years and third place in the Atlantic Sun final standings. Courtney Hawkins had 17 points, five assists and four rebounds while Tee'Ara Copney also tied for the team scoring lead with 17 points. Lesley Daniel, Chelsea McMillan and Koko Richardson all scored 12 points with McMillan adding 13 rebounds for a double-double.
Stetson led by three points in the early going but McMillan put the Spartans ahead to stay with 11:37 remaining in the first half. The Hatters trailed 42-36 at halftime and were still down by just seven with 6:40 left to go when USC Upstate went on a 17-4 run over the next four minutes to put the game out of reach. The Spartans shot 49 percent from the floor (32-65) and 50 percent from distance (9-18) in the game to keep Stetson at bay.
The ETSU-Stetson contest and the other three A-Sun quarterfinal matchups are free to watch on A-Sun.TV. Should the Hatters defeat the Lady Bucs, they would take on either the #4 or #5 seed at noon Friday in the semifinals; that contest as well as Saturday's championship game at noon Saturday will be broadcast regionally on CSS. Host Mercer will be the #2 seed; the other five seeds are yet to be determined among Belmont, Campbell, Jacksonville, Kennesaw State and North Florida.
