ORANGEBURG, SC – Guard Whitney Wiley tossed in 16 points and senior Sophilia Hipps, who closed out her home career, added 10 to lead SC State to a 58-47 victory over Winston-Salem State Thursday in the regular-season finale for both teams.

Tiana Hemphill came off the bench for a game-high 11 rebounds and added 6 points in the victory, which gave the Lady Bulldogs a sweep of the series this year.

SC State finished the year at 11-18 overall, giving Coach Doug Robertson's team five more victories than a year ago. The Lady Bulldogs closed at 5-11 in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, two more league wins than in 2008-09.

Winston-Salem State featured balanced scoring, with Vontisha Woods, MaLisa Bumphus, Shawanda Hanton and Rene Rector all scoring 10 points. The Lady Rams finished the year at 2-28 overall.

The host Lady Bulldogs took an early 11-4 lead in the contest and were ahead 17-8 after Wiley drove the lane for a layup with 8:36 on the first-period clock. WSSU came back with seven straight points, five by Bumphus, to close to with 17-15 at the 6:37 mark before SC State took a 26-19 lead to the locker room.

SC State went ahead 48-35 lead on a layup by Tiara Knotts with 5:51 left and took its biggest lead of 56-39 on a 3-pointer by Hipps with 1:49 left. The closest WSSU came after that was the final margin.

SC State will meet Coppin State in opening-round action of the league tournament Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. at the Lawrence Joel Memorial Coliseum at Winston-Salem, NC.  The two teams split their two regular-season games with each winning on the road.

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