USC Aiken Lady Pacers Picked to Finish 6th in PBC Hoops

AUGUSTA, Ga.  - The USC Aiken women’s basketball team was chosen to finish sixth in the 2009-10 Peach Belt Conference Women’s Basketball preseason poll.
The poll of the league’s head coaches was released by the conference office on Thursday afternoon.

For the second time in the last three years, Clayton State was tabbed as the preseason favorite, receiving seven of a possible 12 first place votes. Defending league champion Francis Marion was selected to finish in second.

Lander was third followed by a tie between GCSU and Columbus State for fourth.

The Pacers accomplished something that had never been done in program history prior to last year when they claimed their third consecutive 20-win campaign. The Pacers’ 20th win of the season on senior night against PBC rival Georgia College & State in late February also happened to be the 500th win in program history.

The Pacers built on the momentum of their regular season-ending win over GCSU to advance all the way to the PBC Tournament championship game. The Pacers dropped their bid for their first PBC Tournament championship, but they were awarded for a strong 2008-09 season with a trip to the their third ever NCAA Division II Tournament.

USC Aiken eventually bowed out in the first round of the tournament to regional finalist and PBC rival Francis Marion. Despite the loss in the first round of USC Aiken’s second trip to the Division II Tournament under Brandt, the Pacers’ 2008-09 season was one of the brightest in school history.

USC Aiken enters the 2009-10 campaign looking to claim their fourth consecutive 20-win season. The Pacers graduated four key seniors off of the 2008-09 Division II Tournament squad, but nevertheless another 20-win year is not out of the realm of imagination in a program on firm footing under eighth-year head coach Mike Brandt.

Brandt and the Pacers return two starters from the 2008-09 team, including local product Kendra Chandler (Aiken, S.C./Aiken), who has the ability to be not only one of the top players in the PBC, but also in the nation.

Chandler is joined back in the starting lineup by Triahna Harris (Springfield, Va./West Springfield). Harris started in and played in every game in the 2008-09 season.
The upperclassmen tandem will form one of the most potent backcourts in all of Division II.

USC Aiken overall welcomes back eight letterwinners to a 2009-10 team that coupled with seven newcomers should once again keep the Pacers at the top or near the top of the PBC.

Clayton State made history in 2008-09 as the first Peach Belt Conference team to make a second trip to the NCAA Elite Eight. The Lakers reached the national finals in 2007 and returned last season after compiling a 26-7 overall record. The Lakers return two starters and five letterwinners from last year, including senior guard Lesheria Stevens.

Francis Marion claimed their second consecutive PBC Championship in 2008-09 and reached the final of the NCAA Southeast Regional. The nation’s top-scoring team for the past two seasons, FMU welcomes back five letterwinners and four starters from last season’s 27-5 squad, including All-Conference forward Shannon Singleton-Bates.

Lander won their second consecutive PBC Tournament Championship in 2009 as the fifth seed, beating the fourth, third and No. 1 seeds in the process. The Bearcats finished the season 20-11 and bring back 11 players from that team, including Shannon McKever and Tasheba Butler, who were named second-team All-PBC in 2009.

Columbus State welcomes new head coach Jonathan Norton and brings back Phebe Smith, the reigning PBC Player of the Year, who led the league in scoring and rebounding last season. GCSU brings back All-Conference senior Shandrea Moore and Dominique Huffin, who was the 2008 PBC Freshman of the Year.

The Peach Belt Conference will undergo several changes for the 2009-10 season, the foremost of which is a return to division play. With the additions of Flagler College and the University of Montevallo, the PBC will be split into east and west divisions. In the east will be Augusta State, USC Aiken, Lander, Flagler, Armstrong Atlantic, Francis Marion and UNC Pembroke. The west will feature Montevallo, Columbus State, Georgia Southwestern, GCSU, Clayton State and North Georgia.

The PBC regular season begins Nov. 15 and continues through the 2010 PBC Tournament. The tournament format has changed with only the top four teams in each division advancing to a first-round game on the campus of the higher seed. The final four will then convene at the Convocation Center in Aiken, S.C., March 6-7, 2010.
The 2009-10 USC Aiken women’s basketball schedule begins with an exhibition contest against NCAA Division I College of Charleston. The Cougars snapped USC Aiken’s impressive three-game winning streak over Division I foes during the regular season in the 2008-09 season, but regardless USC Aiken has claimed a victory against Division I opposition in three of their last four outings against Division I competition.

After their exhibition against College of Charleston, the Pacers will try and replicate their success out of the gate in the 2008-09 season that saw them start 6-0.

USC Aiken’s 2009-10 regular season commences on Wednesday, Nov. 18 with a trip to Anderson, S.C. to take on defending Conference Carolinas champion and 2009 NCAA Division II Tournament team Anderson College. The Pacers bested the Trojans, 64-46, last year at the Convocation Center.