Upstate Drops Conference Opener to Radford

USC Upstate wrapped up non-conference play in a good position a week and a half ago as the Spartans, despite a 74-65 loss on the road to Youngstown State, finished the “warmup games” (if you will..) with an 8-7 record, quickly surpassing the high water mark of 6-wins from 2024-2025. That record makes for the best start for Upstate since 2018 and their third most wins over the noncon slate since the program made the transition to NCAA Division I back in 2007. To ice the cake, this start is also the third best in the program’s history. Needless to say – if there was such a thing as a mid-season award for Most Improved, USC Upstate would be a shoo-in for it.

With the non conference out of the way, the second season – the Big South Conference schedule, got underway on Wednesday afternoon at the Hodge Center with the Spartans, having the added bonus of Breylin Garcia officially being back from a lengthy injury battle, welcomed the Radford Highlanders (7-8) hoping to ring in the New Year with a conference win.

The first half of this game looked like two teams that have not played in almost two weeks. Both got off to a slow start and never really found a rhythm at all through the first 20 minutes. By the under-16 media timeout, Upstate held a narrow 7-6 lead thanks to the game’s first three pointer from Tyler Smith nearly 2 minutes before it. The stoppage was prompted by a foul on a made layup by Radford’s Dennis Parker Jr, and out of the break, he sank the and-1 to tie the game at 7.

Skipping ahead to the 2nd stoppage, Upstate went on a 2:43 scoreless skid that Radford was scarcely able to capitalize on, going just 3 for 4 in that span. However, that was enough for them to eventually take the lead on a slam dunk from Frederik Erichsen at the 12:42 mark. After the under-12, Upstate snapped their slide with a Carmelo Adkins midrange jumper and from there, the two sides exchanged blows all the way up to the final break of the half.

The Spartans, after multiple missed opportunities to go ahead while Radford clung to a 1-point lead in a 2:30 scoreless skid, finally broke through at the 2:52 mark when Mason Bendinger hit a layup. But, that would be all the scoring for USC Upstate for rest of the half. The Highlanders closed out the period on a 7-0 run that was capped by a logo three from Mari Jordan at the horn, sending the teams to the locker room with Radford up 37-30.

The Highlanders picked up where they left off in the 2nd half, never trailing and building their largest lead of the game at 11 points midway through. However, there were some moments where the Spartans were able to fight their way back to a manageable deficit. USC Upstate kept the Highlanders off the scoreboard for about two and a half minutes leading into the under-12 timeout, going on a 6-0 run in that span. If you go back even further to just after the under 16, it was a 10-2 total Spartan run lasting nearly 5 minutes.

That push was enough to shave Radford’s lead down to just six, but the offensive streakiness of USC Upstate became the deciding factor in the end. The Spartans went on two more costly skids over the final 10 minutes – one of 2 minutes and 54 seconds and the other lasting 2:24, and by the time the clock hit triple zeros, the Highlanders prevailed 76-69.

“They outplayed us all day”, said head coach Marty Richter following the loss. “Coach {Zach} Chu did a good job of getting his guys ready to play. They played hard. You have to tip your cap to them. Radford made timely buckets, they got timely stops. But you can’t win if you don’t compete for 40 minutes. We did not do that today, and that was the most disappointing thing. You cannot play 10-12 out of 40 minutes and expect to win. You have to play a full 40. You cannot pick and choose when you want to play at this level. Teams are too good. Our league is too good”, he later added.

Three different Upstate players tied for the team lead in scoring in this contest. Gregory, Bendinger, and Adkins each logged 16. Karmani added a rebound, 3 assists, and 2 steals to his line while Mason tallied 3 boards, 3 assists, a steal, and a block. Adkins led the team in rebounding with 8 to go with 3 steals. Only two other Spartans eclipsed the double figure mark — Learic Davis with 8 points to go with 4 rebounds, and Smith with 7 to accompany 4 boards and 3 assists.

Although those numbers look good, Marty Richter was quick to tell the hard truth. This is now back to back games where Upstate has not played to the level that they were through the first month and some change of the season, and now that they have entered Big South play, that is something they quickly have to change.

“I did a poor job of getting my guys ready”, said Richter in frustration. “Our last two outings – and I’ve got to get this corrected – we have not played to the level we have to in order to compete. We are going to get that changed. I am excited for practice tomorrow and getting these guys excited about playing conference opponents. We’ll get that changed tomorrow and we’ll get it changed by the time we go live on Friday.”

Putting this game in the rearview, Upstate will look to get back into the win column on the road this coming Saturday against Presbyterian College (7-8 on the season), who got an extended Christmas break with a bye today. Asked about what he could take away from this contest that may help better prepare the team for PC, Coach Richter had this to say.

“I have got to figure out who is going to compete for 40 minutes and who won’t and go from there. Some guys that played a lot of minutes tonight may not log as many on Saturday. We cannot keep doing the same thing and thinking you are going to get different results. I have got to figure that piece out. We also have to do some finishing. You cannot go 18 for 38 in ‘A-range’ at the rim. That is the ‘smiley face’ {restricted arch} and in. You can’t go 18 of 38 and expect to win a college basketball game. You have to make those shots. So we are going to do some finishing, some defense, and competing.”

Tip off for Saturday’s second Big South contest between the Blue Hose and Spartans is set for 2:00 PM in the Templeton Center.