RADFORD, Va. – The Radford women’s basketball program stormed back after being down by as much as 12 in the second half to get an overtime 67-61 victory over USC Upstate Saturday afternoon in the team’s annual Play4Kay Game.
Before Saturday’s game, Radford honored Jen Norton, the associate athletic director for sports performance at Radford. Jen plays a large part in making the student athlete experience so great. Ever since joining Radford, she has been open about her battle with cancer and been a beacon of positivity in the weight room.
Coming into today’s meeting, the Spartans were the hottest team in the conference atop the conference standings with four straight wins and it appeared as if that hot shooting would continue. The conference leader in assists Trinity Johnson got things going for the Spartans and after Terissa Lavoile-Brice briefly tied things up, USC Upstate got their first three of the game to claim a lead that would last almost the entire game.
Down 7-4, Olivia Wagner checked in with her first of four three pointers in the game to tie the game back up at seven. USC Upstate would go on a 9-2 run thanks to a four-minute drought without a made shot before Ellie Taylor ended the drought with a layup to make it a 16-11 deficit. Ashlyn Traylor-Walker would sneak a shot in before the finish of the first quarter, but the Highlanders trailed 20-16.
Joi Williams opened the second quarter with a three to further cut the deficit and again hit a long jumper to make it a 22-21 game. USC Upstate, however, enforced another scoring drought and got an 8-0 scoring run over seven minutes that ballooned their lead to 30-21. A pair of makes in the final minute by Williams and Ashlyn made things a manageable 34-26 score at the half in USC Upstate’s favor.
Lavoile-Brice would open the scoring in the second half just as she did in the first half, but the Spartans offense also came out strong with a pair of three-pointers that pushed their lead to the highest yet at 42-30 with 6:14 left in the third quarter.
Needing a restart, head coach Mike McGuire called a timeout to reset the game. Taylor came out of that timeout with a big three-pointer in the corner and Wagner followed with a made shot from the free throw line. Radford’s defense also stepped up and forced six straight turnovers to keep USC Upstate scoreless for almost four minutes.
Headed into the fourth quarter, Radford had new life trailing just 39-44. After four straight points by the Spartans opened the fourth quarter, the Highlanders were required to dig even deeper. Ashlyn and Lavoile-Brice got crucial makes to erase that 4-0 run and bring things back to 48-43.
Nobody would get a made shot over a four minute stretch between the seventh and third minutes of the quarter, but Radford went to the free throw line with haste getting makes from Taniya Hanner, Taylor and Ashlyn to pull within 47-48.
After another 5-2 USC Upstate run had the opponents up 53-49 with 1:50 remaining, Radford geared up for one more run. Wagner hit one of her biggest three’s of the evening with 1:27 remaining. After a big defensive stop, Lavoile-Brice was fouled on the rebound and headed to the line hitting one of two to tie the game at 53-all.
Radford forced another turnover but couldn’t convert giving USC Upstate the last possession. The defense buckled down and got yet another crucial stop forcing overtime in the Dedmon Center for the first time since 2021.
The Spartans opened overtime with a made layup that gave them the early edge. Ashlyn immediately responded with her first three-pointer of the game to give Radford its first lead of the game at 56-55 with 3:49 left in the game. The Spartans responded with their own three ball to go back up, but Ashlyn didn’t back down and immediately drained a three-pointer to get Radford back in front 59-58.
After another USC Upstate turnover, Wagner made them pay with a dagger three-pointer putting Radford up 62-58 with two minutes to go. Hanner joined in with a second chance layup to extend the lead at 62-59. Turning to their defense once again, the defense responded once again and held the Spartans to two points over the final minute allowing Radford to hit its free throws and come away with the 67-61 win.
In the Big South women’s standings, there’s now a three-way tie for first with Radford, High Point and USC Upstate all toting a 7-2 conference record.