DeLand, Fla. - Sophomore forward Sasha Sims (Fayetteville, Ga.) scored 18 points and grabbed seven rebounds to lead the Stetson women's basketball team (9-3, 2-0 Atlantic Sun) to its third straight win overall and eighth in a row at the Edmunds Center as the Hatters dropped USC Upstate (1-9, 0-1 A-Sun) 69-54 Saturday afternoon. Stetson led by as many as 30 points with six minutes remaining and never trailed once in the contest.
Stetson played lockdown defense throughout on Spartans guard Tee'Ara Copney, the Atlantic Sun Conference's leading scorer at 17.8 points per game coming into the game. The Hatters held her to just six points on 3-15 shooting, a microcosm of Upstate's shooting woes. Denied open looks for much of the game, USC Upstate shot just 19.2 percent (5-26) from the floor in the first half and only 32.7 percent (18-55) in total.
A slow start for both teams offensively started to pick up when Spartans guard Briana Robinson made a three-pointer just over five minutes into the game that tied the score 5-5; Sims immediately answered with a basket on the other end that started a dominating 14-0 run that put the Hatters ahead by double digits permanently. USC Upstate didn't score again until Paulina Zaveckaite's basket at 8:13, going six minutes and 55 seconds on the scoreboard without a point.
Comfortably ahead 34-14 at halftime with Sims and junior guard Victoria McGowan (Inkster, Mich.) (10 and nine points, respectively) outscoring the Spartans by themselves, the Hatters continued to swell their lead in the second half. Stetson pushed its advantage to 25 (47-22) on a Sims three-pointer with six minutes gone in the second period and gained its largest lead with 5:52 to go on a McGowan layup. USC Upstate finished the game reasonably strongly with an effective full court press that led to a 21-6 finishing kick. The Hatters only made one field goal in a foul- and turnover-marred final 5:52.
Sims was 7-11 from the floor and four for eight from three-point territory to lead the Hatters, who also received 15 points and seven rebounds from McGowan. Freshman forward Cherisse Burris (Blue Springs, Mo.) scored nine points and tied for the team high with seven rebounds while junior guard Ashley Dennis (Bexley, Ohio) scored a season-high nine points on the strength of perfect 3-3 shooting (2-2 from distance). Junior guard Shanasa Sanders (Jacksonville, Fla.) shrugged off a tough 1-8 shooting day to hand out a team-high four assists.
Tyra Smith was USC Upstate's only double-figure scorer, totalling 11 points and handing out a game-high seven assists. Lauren McRoberts registered a team-high six rebounds and blocked four shots for the Spartans.
Stetson wraps up the non-conference schedule this Tuesday and Wednesday with the Hatter Classic at the Edmunds Center. Tuesday's slate sees Stetson host former A-Sun rival Campbell at 1:00 pm with Bethune-Cookman taking on Florida Atlantic at 3:00 pm while Wednesday's action includes a 1:00 pm B-CU/Campbell game preceding FAU at Stetson at 3:00 pm. Live Stats for all games and Hatter Vision for Stetson's two contests can be found at GoHatters.com.
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