SPARTANBURG, SC—USC Upstate defeated visiting NJIT, 67-47, in the Atlantic Sun Conference women's basketball regular season finale for both teams Saturday afternoon.
 
NJIT (1-13 A-Sun, 4-25) will be the eighth-seed and open the A-Sun tournament at runaway first-place winner Florida Gulf Coast (14-0 A-Sun, 26-4) on Friday, March 4 at 7pm.
 
The Highlanders found themselves trailing 24-5 after the first quarter but couldn't cut into the deficit the rest of the way, despite keeping pace with Upstate over the final three quarters.
 
Redshirt freshman Kelly Guarino shot 7-for-15 from the field with one three-pointer, finishing the day with 16 points.  Classmate Tatianna Torres tied her season and career high with eight points off the bench (previously scored eight points on February 22nd at North Florida).
 
USC Upstate (10-4 A-Sum, 19-10) was paced by Kristen Dickerson's game-high 17 points, followed by Brittany Clency with 15 points.  Senior Brittany Starling was one rebound shy of a double-double with 15 points and nine rebounds and Travonda Haddock combined for a double-double, 10 points and 10 rebounds for the Spartans.
 
In the first quarter, the Spartans jumped to a 6-0 lead with 6:52 remaining before NJIT's Guarino hit a three-point shot for the Highlanders' first basket of the game.  Upstate finished the quarter on a 14-0 run after Olivia Dudley hit a jumper for NJIT with 5:59 remaining in the quarter. 
 
NJIT kept pace with Upstate in the second quarter, as the visiting, Highlanders, scored 14 points, along with Upstate. 
 
Alana Dudley led the way with five points as sister Olivia Dudley added four points to help pace the Highlanders. 
 
NJIT outscored USC Upstate 16-13 in the third quarter as the Highlanders got as close as 14 points with 21 seconds left in the period.  USC Upstate's A'Lexxus Davis hit a layup as time ran out give Upstate a 16-point advantage, 51-36.
 
Upstate kept control of the game and closed out the final quarter with 16 points for a 67-47 victory.