Women's Basketball to Visit Longwood for Weekend Series

CLINTON, S.C. – The Presbyterian College women's basketball team heads out on the road this weekend for a two-game Big South Conference series against Longwood.

Matchup: Presbyterian (7-7, 6-6) at Longwood (8-7, 7-3)
Date: Friday and Saturday, January 29-30
Time: 6:00 pm
Site: Willett Hall (Farmville, Va.)
Live Video: Game 1 Game 2
Live Stats: SIDEARM
Twitter: @bluehosewbb

Notes

Opening Tip...
PC heads back out on the road this weekend for a two-game Big South series at Longwood. After knocking off league-leading High Point last Saturday, the Blue Hose are one win away from equaling last season's mark of seven conference wins (7-13).

Last Time Out...
The Blue Hose are coming off of a split against league-leading High Point last weekend. In the opener, the Panthers connected on 19 three-pointers and pulled away in the second half for a 75-52 win. The next day, PC broke a 52-52 deadlock with a 7-0 run in the fourth quarter, and held on from there for a 65-56 victory to snap a six-game losing streak against High Point. In the win, Jade Compton registered her fourth double-double of the season (18 points, 12 rebounds), while Tess Santos netted a season-best 13 points. The Blue Hose also tied their season high with eight made three-pointers.

Scouting the Lancers...
Longwood had a bye last weekend, and has not taken the court since finishing a sweep of Winthrop on Jan. 16. Overall, the Lancers have won three straight and five of their last six. Longwood ranks as the top scoring offense in the Big South at 70.2 points per game, and boasts two of the top-5 scorers in the conference, each of which is a two-time Big South Player of the Week this season. Kyla McMakin is second in the league at 18.7 points per game, while Akila Smith's 14.5 points per contest rank fifth. Smith also tops the Big South in rebounding at 11.3 per game. On the flip side, Presbyterian's 58.6 points per game allowed is the second-lowest total in the conference, and its .373 opponent field goal percentage is the third-lowest in the league.

Series History with LWU...
The Blue Hose and Lancers played three times last season, with PC going 2-1, including an 82-73 win in Farmville last March in the first round of the Big South Conference Championship. In last year's regular season meeting in Farmville, Jade Compton set a new PC DI era record with 32 points in an 82-77 overtime victory. The road team won all three meetings last season, and has won each of the last four. PC owns a 14-8 edge in the all-time series, and a 14-4 mark since both teams joined the Big South.

Compton Catching Fire...
Jade Compton averaged a double-double for the second straight week, scoring 16.0 points and grabbing 10.0 rebounds per game in PC's series split against High Point. In the victory over HPU, Compton notched her team-leading fourth double-double, scoring 18 points to go with 12 rebounds. The senior has topped the Blue Hose in both scoring and rebounding in four straight games, and has scored in double-digits in a career-high seven consecutive games, and eight of her last nine. During this nine-game run, the Garland, Texas, native is shooting 51.0 percent (51-100) from the floor, 51.7 percent (15-29) from downtown and 75.0 percent (18-24) at the foul line. She's also averaging a team-best 15.0 points and 9.9 rebounds during this stretch.

Cleaning the Glass...
PC has won the rebounding battle in 11 of its 14 games, including 10 of 12 in conference play. The Blue Hose rank second in the Big South in rebounding margin (+4.4/game) and boast the top rebounding margin in conference games (+5.8/game). PC also has three of the top-15 rebounders in the conference in Jade Compton (3rd, 8.7), Tionna Carter (9th, 6.4) and Nyah Willis (15th, 6.0). Compton is averaging 9.3 rebounds per game in Big South play, the second-highest average in the league.

Among the Leaders...
Tionna Carter leads PC in scoring at 11.6 ppg, 10th in the Big South, while Jade Compton is right behind in 11th at 11.4 ppg. Carter ranks third in field goal percentage (.488) and Compton is fourth (.480). Carter's 14 blocks are tied for fourth in the conference, while her 1.0 per game average is tied for third. Trinity Johnson is handing out 3.9 assists per game, fourth in the conference, while Maleia Bracone is sixth in the league in steals, averaging 1.7 per contest.

Century Club...
Two Blue Hose sharpshooters are within striking distance of making the 100th three-pointer of their collegiate careers. Senior forward Tess Santos (98) needs just a pair of threes to reach the milestone, while junior guard Shamani Stafford (93) needs 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"; Sophomore

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

#14 Trinity Johnson: G; 5' 7"; Junior

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

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

#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"; Sophomore
: F

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

#14 Trinity Johnson
: 5' 7"; Junior
: G

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

#23 Shamani Stafford
: 5' 7"; Junior
: 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