SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Junior guard Malea Brown registered career highs of 23 points and six steals, but USC Upstate survived a late comeback from the Longwood women's basketball team to win, 49-45, at the G.B. Hodge Center Wednesday.
 
Brown drilled 3-pointers on two consecutive possessions in the final minute to knot the game, 45-45, but Upstate's Jeni Levine drew a foul on the other end and nailed both free throws with 3.1 seconds remaining.
 
The Lancers had one last opportunity but couldn't get the ball in bounds and called timeout. Longwood did not have any remaining. Trinity Johnson then hit both free throws, putting the game on ice.
 
"It was a tough-fought battle on the road tonight against a team that is first place in our division," Longwood head coach Erika Lang-Montgomery said. "I thought we did as much as we could defensively to disrupt their offense, we did a lot of things right tonight. Unfortunately, we came up on the short side of things."
 
Longwood (6-17, 3-7 Big South) trailed by as many as 12 points in third quarter and erased a five-point deficit in the fourth as Brown scored 14 points in the final 10 minutes. Brown, a Putnam Hall, Fla., native, finished 9-for-16 from the floor and 3-of-6 from distance, igniting the comeback.
 
AC Markham drained the first of two free throws to give her team a 34-22 edge with 6:31 to play in the third before Brown hit two of her own from the line and Stephanie Davis converted a layup off a Kiki McIntyre pass for a 34-26 deficit with 4:05 left in the quarter. Inside the last 30 seconds of the frame, Frances Ulysse hit a layup and drew contact, adding a free throw, to pull the Lancers to within 38-31 as the period came to a close.
 
Brown scored the first six points of the fourth, cutting the deficit to one with 7:17 to play. Johnson followed with two free throws and a Levine a layup for a 42-37 advantage. Brown scored again, though, despite Johnson tallying another three-point play for a 45-39 lead with 1:21 left.
 
That's when Brown sniped treys, assisted by Bailey Williams and McIntyre, respectively, for the tie.
 
"Malea has been someone who we can count on all year," Lang-Montgomery said. "man, she really cored the ball well for us tonight. We needed her to step up with Janay [Turner] not starting and … Malea rose to occasion, so proud of her tonight."
 
Ulysse scored nine points with team bests of nine rebounds and two blocks.
 
USC Upstate received 11 points and seven boards to improve to 13-10 overall and 8-2 in the league.
 
Longwood returns to South Carolina Saturday to take on Winthrop in Rock Hill at 2 p.m.