PC Women Set to Face League-Leading High Point

CLINTON, S.C. – The Presbyterian College women's basketball team continues its four-game homestand this weekend as it welcomes Big South-leading High Point to Clinton for a two-game series.

Matchup: Presbyterian (6-6, 5-5) vs High Point (11-4, 9-1)
Date: Friday and Saturday, January 22-23
Time: 6:00 pm / 4:00 pm
Site: Templeton Center (Clinton, S.C.)
Live Video: Game 1 Game 2
Live Stats: Game 1 Game 2
Twitter: @bluehosewbb

Notes

Last Time Out...
The Blue Hose returned home for the first time in nearly a month last week, dropping a pair of one-point contests to Campbell. Presbyterian rallied back in the second half of both games, including taking a one-point lead with 1.9 seconds to go in the opener, before the Camels hit a buzzer-beater. In the finale, PC tied the game in the final seconds, but fell by a point again after a late CU free throw. Jade Compton led the Blue Hose in scoring and rebounding in both contests, netting 17 points and grabbing 13 rebounds in the opener, then notching 19 points to go with nine rebounds the next day.

Scouting the Panthers...
High Point enters this weekend's series atop the Big South standings, and has won nine straight since dropping its conference opener at UNC Asheville. The Panthers are led by Big South Preseason Player of the Year Skyler Curran, who ranks third in the league in scoring (17.2 ppg) and sixth in rebounding (7.1 rpg). These are two of the best defensive squads in the Big South, as PC ranks second in scoring defense (57.5 ppg), while High Point is third (61.5 ppg). The Panthers also rank as the second-best offense in the league, averaging 69.5 points per contest. HPU has won the last five meetings between the two programs.

The Slimmest of Margins...
Presbyterian dropped both of its games against Campbell by a single point last weekend, 62-61 and 59-58. It marked the first time PC has had consecutive games decided by a single point since Feb. 20 and 22 of 2006, when the Blue Hose notched back-to-back one-point victories over Carson-Newman and Tusculum. All of PC's conference losses have been close contests, with the largest margin of defeat being six (61-55 at Radford on Dec. 31), and the other four decided by three points or fewer. Conversely, of the Blue Hose five conference wins, only one has been decided by fewer than 10 (69-60 vs Gardner-Webb on Dec. 16).

Compton Catching Fire...
Jade Compton averaged a double-double against Campbell last week, tallying 18.0 points and 11.0 rebounds per game in those two contests. The senior posted her team-best third double-double of the season in the opener against the Camels (17 points, 13 rebounds), and came one rebound shy (19 points, 9 rebounds) of her third consecutive double-double in the finale against CU. Compton has now scored in double-digits in a career-high five consecutive games, and six of her last seven. During this seven-game run, the Garland, Texas, native is shooting 51.9 percent (40-77) from the floor, 52.2 percent (12-23) from downtown and 78.6 percent (11-14) at the foul line. She's also averaging a team-best 14.7 points and 9.9 rebounds during this stretch.

Cleaning the Glass...
PC has won the rebounding battle in 10 of its 12 games, including nine of 10 in conference play. The Blue Hose rank second in the Big South in rebounding margin (+4.8/game) and boast the top rebounding margin in conference games (+6.6/game). PC also has three of the top-10 rebounders in the conference in Jade Compton (4th, 8.5), Tionna Carter (9th, 6.7) and Nyah Willis (T-10th, 6.5). Compton is averaging 9.1 rebounds per game in Big South play, the second-highest average in the league.

Among the Leaders...
Tionna Carter leads PC in scoring at 12.3 ppg, which is 10th in the Big South. Carter also ranks fourth in field goal percentage (.491) and free throw percentage (.841). Jade Compton's recent hot streak has her up to fifth in overall field goal percentage (.481) and third in Big South games (.489). Trinity Johnson is handing out 3.8 assists per game, fourth in the conference, while Maleia Bracone is sixth in the league in steals, averaging 1.8 per contest.

Century Club...
Two Blue Hose sharpshooters are within striking distance of making the 100th three-pointer of their collegiate careers. Junior guard Shamani Stafford and senior forward Tess Santos each sit on 93 made threes for their careers, and need seven to reach 100. Seven other Blue Hose have reached 100 career three-pointers in the program's DI era, with Karlee Taylor making a record 264 from 2010-14. Santos also played the 100th game of her Blue Hose career on Jan. 16 against Campbell.

COVID Concerns Affecting Schedule...
The postponement of PC's Jan. 4-5 series against UNC Asheville and subsequent rescheduling of its series against CSU (moved up from Feb. 19-20) pushed the number of games affected by COVID-19 to seven for the Blue Hose. Presbyterian had its originally scheduled season opener on Nov. 25 at Kennesaw State canceled after positive tests within the KSU program, and then their games at Furman (Dec. 1) and against Mercer (Dec. 10) canceled after COVID-19 concerns within their own program.

Back in Blue...
Coach Sharp brought back four starters from last year's squad, with Tionna Carter (30 GP/19 GS), Jade Compton (30 GP/28 GS), Trinity Johnson (29 GP/29 GS) and Tess Santos (30 GP/28 GS) all back in the fold. In total, the Blue Hose returned 10 letterwinners, which accounted for 77 percent of their scoring in 2019-20. Among those back are the team's top three scorers from a year ago in Johnson (15.2 ppg), Carter (8.9 ppg) and Compton (8.2 ppg).

New Kids on the Block...
Coach Sharp brought five newcomers into the fold for the 2020-21 season, four freshmen and one transfer. Center Aaliyah Austin (Satsuma, Ala.) and guards Sabrina Belquist (Los Gatos, Calif.), Maleia Bracone (Anderson, S.C.) and Kelsey Brown (Simpsonville, S.C.) make up PC's freshman class, while sophomore guard Nyah Willis (San Jose, Calif.) joins the Blue Hose as a transfer from Chabot College in Hayward, Calif.

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Players Mentioned

#22 Tionna Carter: F; 6' 1"; Freshman

#32 Jade Compton: F; 5' 10"; Junior

#14 Trinity Johnson: G; 5' 6"; Sophomore

#15 Tess Santos: F; 6' 0"; Junior

#23 Shamani Stafford: G; 5' 7"; Sophomore

#11 Sabrina Belquist: G; 5' 11"; Freshman

#24 Nyah Willis: G; 5' 10"; Sophomore

#4 Kelsey Brown: G; 5' 7"; Freshman

#00 Maleia Bracone: G; 5' 10"; Freshman

#21 Aaliyah Austin: C; 6' 2"; Freshman

Players Mentioned

#22 Tionna Carter
: 6' 1"; Freshman
: F

#32 Jade Compton
: 5' 10"; Junior
: F

#14 Trinity Johnson
: 5' 6"; Sophomore
: G

#15 Tess Santos
: 6' 0"; Junior
: F

#23 Shamani Stafford
: 5' 7"; Sophomore
: G

#11 Sabrina Belquist
: 5' 11"; Freshman
: G

#24 Nyah Willis
: 5' 10"; Sophomore
: G

#4 Kelsey Brown
: 5' 7"; Freshman
: G

#00 Maleia Bracone
: 5' 10"; Freshman
: G

#21 Aaliyah Austin
: 6' 2"; Freshman
: C