Upstate Holds On For Win Against Presbyterian

Since the last time the Spartans were in the familiar confines of the GB Hodge Center with me in attendance – a thrilling 100-94 overtime victory over Charleston Southern to secure the season sweep and the tiebreaker over the Bucs, it has been a tough road. Upstate had to follow that with a Thursday night battle against one of the two teams that have been in a virtual deadlock for the top spot in the Big South Conference standings all season long – the High Point Panthers. The Spartans fought hard in that contest – a theme that has presented itself across each of their last three games in which they have also faced Longwood and the league-leading Winthrop Eagles.

The Spartans have gone 0 for three in that stretch, but Karmani Gregory continued his string of games scoring in double figures, stretching it to 8 in a row, each time having 2 or more teammates accompany him in that category. Upstate ultimately fell 90-75 to HPU, but battled to the wire twice against the Lancers, falling in overtime 82-75, following that by outplaying Winthrop despite a last-second 68-64 loss.

In short, while it has not produced the ideal results, the Spartans, who entered Saturday’s game against Presbyterian at 11-17 overall and 3-10 in the league, have been playing with a renewed confidence entering the crucial home stretch of the season.

“We have played our tails off”, said USC Upstate Head Coach Marty Richter. “We are peaking and playing harder at the right time and we are playing more connected as a team at the right time. When you start to do that, you may not get the results – we didn’t at Longwood or Winthrop. But both of those games were coin flips. If we had made just one more play, we probably would have come out victorious in both of them and instead of being 12-17, we are now 14-15 with 2 games left. But, regardless, we are peaking right now because our guys are being unselfish and my guards are playing well. When you have good guard play, you have a chance every night.”

That peak performance level over the last two weeks showed early on in this game against Presbyterian as the Spartans built an early cushion. Upstate won the tip and drew first blood quickly on a Carmelo Adkins hook shot. That turned into a 6-0 run and by the first media timeout, the Spartans led 10-4. The two sides traded baskets for a bit until Presbyterian took a missed second free throw out of the under-12 stoppage and turned it into a 4-0 push with a corner three off the offensive rebound. The Blue Hose would stage another quick rally with a 6-0 burst during a nearly 2-minute scoreless skid by the Spartans that was broken by a free throw by Jafeth Martinez at the 9:02 mark, and by the next break, USC Upstate held a 28-20 edge.

By the half, the difference in the game was clear – the Spartans were dominating in the paint and getting most of the rebounds. Upstate had 26 points in the paint, had pulled down 15 defensive boards alone – more than the 13 total rebounds Presbyterian had in the opening 20 minutes. The Spartans also finished the half 19 for 27 from the field to the Blue Hose’s 13-32. That all added up to a 47-34 advantage heading to the intermission.

As one might expect, that story changed in the second stanza, but it took some time. Ahead of the under-12 stoppage, Karmani Gregory hit a three from the top of the key to officially extend his streak to nine consecutive games with double digit points. But, that basket was the last for a while, as Upstate went cold for the next nearly 2 minutes. In that stretch, PC went on a 9-0 run to pull back within single digits before Isaiah Skinner finally put a temporary stop to the bleeding on a three pointer with 11:48 left in the game.

Unfortunately, once again the Blue Hose were able to put together an extended scoring push, going on a 9-2 run spanning the next 3 minutes ahead of the under-8 media timeout. With the Upstate lead cut to 66-63, PC managed to pull within a point, and from there both sides went into a scoreless skid spanning over 2 minutes. The Blue Hose took their first lead of the night with a pair of free throws at the 4:09 mark, but a foul on the other end prompted the under 4. Out of the break Carmelo Adkins drained both free throws to briefly reclaim the lead. The back and forth would continue from there until Coen Collier put Upstate back on top with a putback layup. On the ensuing PC possession, Isaiah Skinner took a turnover and quickly broke down the court for a layup on the other end. He extended that lead to 5 points with another huge layup with 30 ticks left on the clock. But that would not guarantee the game was sealed.

Presbyterian got a huge three from Carl Parrish with 15 seconds to play to cut the lead to just two. The intensity from there could not be cut with a Samurai sword. Both teams had a shot – Upstate to seal it and PC to tie it, on a 1-and-1. Both missed their first free throws, and in the end USC Upstate held on for a 4th, and quite possibly their biggest Big South victory, defeating the Blue Hose 76-74.

“I loved what our team did today”, said Richter after the win. “We looked like a basketball team. For the first time in a while, we didn’t worry about ourselves as individuals. We worried about the group.”

“Yeah, we got up early in the first half, and what’s tough is trying to hang on the rest of the game instead of just playing it”, he later added. “When you play Coach Q’s {Quentin Ferrell, PC Head Coach} team, you can’t just play to hang on. That was what we looked like in the 2nd half – a team that was just trying to hold on. When you do that against Coach Q’s team, they are going to fight you tooth and nail. They did and you have to tip your cap to Presbyterian for how hard they fought. Parrish {20 points to lead PC} was terrific for them. Pierce {Jonah, fouled out with 14 points} was also big for them. But Karmani Gregory was terrific in closing out the game for us. Coen Collier was the unsung hero. He was terrific defensively and he bothered them. Isaiah Skinner came in and gave us a spark when we needed it at different times. Our guys passed and shared the ball with one another and if we can do all that again, we could have some fun results.”

Gregory led the way with 20 points, 3 assists, a rebound, and a steal. Adkins ended up with 16, three assists, and 5 boards. Skinner tallied 14 with a team leading 7 rebounds, 3 assists, a steal, and a block while Mason Bendinger narrowly missed being the 4th to hang a double, ending with 9, five boards, an assist, and 2 steals.

“We did guard our yard tonight”, said Richter. “There were moments in the 2nd half where we got spread out, and when that happened they got to the teeth of our defense, got in the paint, got to the rim, and dropped it off. We have to be able to guard our yard individually. Karmani did. He made plays for us where you have to make plays, and he did so with force going to the rim. He made big threes and big drives. Carmelo Adkins was also terrific at driving the ball, playing off two, and making reads. If we keep doing that, we can keep moving forward as a team.”

With the much-needed victory, USC Upstate ups their Big South record to 4-10, which with Charleston Southern’s 107-96 double overtime loss to Longwood on Saturday, puts them back into a tie with the Buccaneers for the 7th spot in the standings. That is huge given that the head-to-head tiebreaker belongs to the Spartans, and with just 2 regular season games to go, the big picture outlook is favorable that Upstate can avoid the play-in game on the first day of the Big South Conference tournament for the first time in 2 years, and if they keep playing as well as they are, turn some heads up in Johnson City.

“We can still get to the .500 mark”, Richter stated confidently. “It is going to take some more. But, again we are reaching our peak as a team because we are being unselfish and guys are stepping up. Coen {Collier, 6 points, team-high 9 rebounds, 4 blocked shots} stepped up tonight and has had back to back good games for us. Ja {Jafeth Martinez, 7 pts, 2 reb, block} stepped up the other night at Winthrop and did some really good things. If they can keep doing that, we can keep stepping forward.”

The Spartans will look to keep that goal alive as they travel to Radford Thursday night and wrap up on Saturday at home against Gardner-Webb, who they will be looking to avenge the 67-65 loss to on the road a month ago. Tip off for those games is set for 7:00 and 2:00 PM respectively.