BUIES
CREEK, N.C.-Knotted for the No. 2 seed in next month's Atlantic Sun
Tournament, Campbell will take on USC Upstate in its home finale.
Tipoff is slated for 1 p.m. inside the John W. Pope Jr. Convocation
Center. Seniors Ashley Williamson and Geami
Britt will be honored before the game.
The Lady Camels, at 14-12 overall and 9-8 in A-Sun play, need a
pair of wins in their last three games to secure the program's
first winning season since 2001. Campbell's 14 wins is a high since
that year, while its nine conference victories are the most since
2006.
In their last outing, the Lady Camels trailed by just two with four
minutes remaining in the game, but fell to East Tennessee State,
77-67. The freshman trio of Jazmine
Cooper, Tonisha
Baker and Monique
Spry tallied 35 of the Lady Camels' 67 points, with Cooper
notching her first career double-double. The Fayetteville native
gathered 14 points and 12 boards, both season-highs, in the loss.
Baker followed with 12 points, while Spry posted nine with four
assists.
Saturday's game will feature two of the biggest surprises in the
A-Sun, with both teams showing significantly better records than
the league's preseason poll predicted. USC Upstate was picked to
finish eighth in the poll, while Campbell was 11th.
The teams are now in the top third of the conference, with the
Spartans and the Lady Camels looking to close out the regular
season with third or fourth place finishes, overall. Campbell could
even solidify the No. 2 seed in the A-Sun Tournament, which it
would have missed if the league's preseason prediction played
out.
Their first meeting was a 75-72 Campbell win, in a thriller that
needed nearly every second to decide. Ashley Williamson powered in
a bucket with just over a minute remaining to put the Lady Camels
on top, 73-72, and Tonisha
Baker added the final pair after a missed Spartan free
throw.
Junior forward Chelsea McMillan leads the Spartans (17-8, 11-5
A-Sun) with 14.9 points and an A-Sun best 10.8 rebounds per game.
McMillan is one of two players in the conference averaging a
double-double, with the other being ETSU senior forward Siarra
Evans, who the Lady Camels faced on Thursday.
The Lady Camels will play their final two regular season games in
Jacksonville, Fla., taking on Jacksonville and North Florida next
weekend.