The story of the season to date for USC Upstate Men’s Basketball has been lack of consistency. Coach {Marty} Richter alluded to one of the key contributors to that lack of consistent performance after the Spartans’ 77-67 victory over Presbyterian this past Wednesday night. They are one of the lowest-ranked teams in the NCAA in terms of division I experience. Coming into the season, only 2 players on the roster had played any minutes for Upstate in the previous season(s), and even those were not very meaningful with most being off the bench late in blowouts.
But, with them being 17 games into the season – over halfway – there comes a time where the sports cliche “at some point you are what you are”, becomes true, often accompanying an agonizing realization that you need to start looking ahead to next season. That may or may not be where USC Upstate currently sits.
Don’t misunderstand the tone. It is far from all doom and gloom for the Spartans. Compare this season to last year at this point and the evidence is there that things are definitely heading in the right direction. Record-wise, things are not much different– entering Saturday’s Big South contest with Radford at 5-12 overall and 1-1 in conference (compared to 5-9/0-1 in 2023-2024). But, the level of competitiveness with this team is much better, and each week, it shows that they are starting to gel and learn how to win.
Last time out, the Spartans placed 4 in double figures, had 40 points off the bench, dominated the paint with 39 points, forced 15 turnovers (9 of which were steals), and scored 15 points off those turnovers. Defensively, they made Presbyterian’s best player (Kory Mincy) a non-factor. In short, it was a total team effort against a very solid Blue Hose team. But for everything they did well that night, the season-long issue of inconsistency reared its head on Saturday afternoon.
Again, don’t get me wrong. The opposition was much better. PC is a good team, but Radford entered the day at 11-6 overall for good reason. They get great Guard play with plenty of size, speed, and ability to shoot the ball from anywhere on the floor. They also can change up defensive schemes with ease. Upstate was going to have their work cut out for them, and for a while, they were able to hang.
The Highlanders jumped out to a quick 5-2 lead in the first thirty seconds before both sides began to trade three pointers. Things began to shift in Upstate’s favor at the 16:26 mark when Mister Dean came off the bench and made his presence known immediately with a personal 5-0 spurt, giving his team their first lead on a pull up jumper just ahead of the first media timeout. Out of the break, the Spartans extended Dean’s burst to a 9-0 team run to up the lead to 14-8. Eventually, Radford broke that push at the 14:29 mark on a stepback jumper from Brandon Maclin, sparking a 7-0 run in which they re-claimed the advantage on a Jarvis Moss triple with 12:57 to play in the half.
After the under-12 break, USC Upstate would take the lead two more times via an Andrew McConnell three from the left side (10:50) and another trey from Dean, this one from the right wing (9:40). But, both times, Radford fought back, eventually taking the lead back for good on a Josiah Harris layup just ahead of the under eight timeout that sparked a four- minute 13-4 run highlighted by back-to-back-to-back threes.
“We were up 23-20 and next thing you know, we were down nine. It took three possessions of us not doing our defensive assignments — meaning not running around trying to guard everybody but rather doing your job. We gave up three consecutive three pointers, and we were playing down 8 the rest of the half until we got it down to 6 right before the horn”, said Coach Richter of the disappointing finish to the first period.
Things got a bit dicey to start the 2nd half for the Spartans as the Highlanders managed to balloon their lead to 16 thanks to a 10-push complemented by a 4 minute Upstate cold spell. But, credit to the Spartans, when it felt as if the game was getting out of hand, they showed some fight – which would not have been a part of this game story a few weeks ago.
Radford’s offense vanished for just over 2 and a half minutes – a span during which Upstate put together a 10-0 rally to cut the deficit to 7 points. That Spartan run was cut off by a questionable call where the Highlanders’ Isaiah Gaines threw his elbow into Breylin Garcia for what looked like a charge. Instead of the offensive foul and the ball to Upstate, Garcia was called for a block, sending Gaines to the stripe. He sank both free throws, which led to Radford’s offense kicking back into gear. They outscored the Spartans 9-1 over the next minute and thirty seconds to go back up by 15, and in the end, the Highlanders held on for the 80-67 victory, drawing much-due credit to both teams from Marty Richter in his postgame comments.
“When all that went down, we fought back and got it to a 7 point game. We fought back and that was encouraging. Yeah, we ended up getting beat by 13, but the guys fought all the way to the end. They could have given in. And they didn’t. That is a sign of maturity. Three games ago, we would have given up and gotten beat by 30. Five games ago, we would have gotten beat by 40. We are now starting to try and figure out how to play in and stay in a game that doesn’t go your way”, said Richter.
“My hat goes off to Radford. Coach {Darris} Nichols did a good job having his team prepared. They switched defenses on us well, going from their normal man coverage to off the ball with everything. I thought we competed when we got down, but we still put ourselves into some tough predicaments. In the first half, it went back-and-forth. In the 2nd half, they went on a 13-0 run and we lost our minds”, he later added.
The key differences that can be marked as inconsistencies from Upstate’s win over PC back on Wednesday were that Upstate forced just 9 Radford turnovers – 7 of which came in the 2nd half. Despite that, the Spartans still turned that into 15 points, but they just did not perform as well in the paint. Sure, some credit is due to the Highlanders’ defense, but Upstate scored just 26 points in the paint – a far cry from 39 against the Blue Hose. To cap it all off, USCU also only had 31 bench points compared to 40 three days ago, and saw their streak of games with 4 or more scoring in double figures snapped. Even with all that, Coach Richter was quick to point out that the real key difference can be found in just a few possessions.
“The biggest telltale sign of the game was that they got 10 more possessions than us. We had 15 turnovers, they had 9 – that is 6 more possessions. They had 11 offensive rebounds, we had 7. That’s 4 more. That’s the game. We shot similarly to them. So if you get those 10 possessions, rather than being down 13, it comes down to a free throw shooting contest at the end of the game. And we have got to do better as a group.”
For the 2nd consecutive game, Upstate was led by freshman phenom Mister Dean, tallying 16 points, 2 rebounds, 3 assists, and a steal. Carmelo Adkins and Breylin Garcia were the only others to put up double digits, both scoring 12 points with 7 rebounds. Carmelo also had 2 assists, and 3 steals while Garcia logged an assist and a swipe. Andrew McConnell was the next closest scorer with 8, while Brit Harris had 7. Karmani Gregory rounded out the scoring with 5 points, 4 boards, 2 assists, and a steal.
With the loss, the Spartans fell to 5-13 overall and 1-2 in league play, now turning their attention to back to back road games with no doubt they’ll at the very least be looking not only to compete, but also continue to show signs of progress while trying to be more consistent. It all starts with some points on the line in the all-sports rivalry series with UNC Asheville this coming Wednesday night at 6:30 PM.
“We have to go and compete”, said Richter of what’s next.”Coach {Mike} Morrell has done a really good job. We both had to go through some adversity with the hurricane. They had to go through a lot more of it. He has done an unbelievable job with his guys this year despite those circumstances. The game is going to be a dog fight, and you have to be ready for a fight when you go up there.”
Following the tilt with the Bulldogs, Upstate heads to Boiling Springs, NC on the 18th to face another bulldog. Except this one runs. Tip for the matchup at Gardner-Webb will be at 4:00 PM.
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