Jan. 26, 2009

Box Score

Johnson City, Tenn. - East Tennessee State was able to force Upstate into playing its fast-paced style of play to open the second half and turned a four-point deficit into an 18-point lead with under nine minutes to play en route to an 82-72 victory over the Spartans Monday night in a game played live on regional television on CSS TV.

Upstate fell to 4-15 overall and 3-7 in the A-Sun. The Spartans travel to Jacksonville Friday night to take on North Florida at 7:00 p.m. ETSU improved to 15-5 overall and 9-1 in the A-Sun, moving into a tie with Jacksonville for the conference lead.

"I thought we let the tempo get away from us for a five-minute stretch early in the second half. They got us sped up, we started playing their tempo and that's when they were able to establish a working margin. We did some decent things, but we let them control the tempo which was the difference in the game," said Upstate head coach Eddie Payne.

Bobby Davis and Josh Chavis paced Upstate early on with six points apiece as the Spartans began the game on fire, hitting seven of their first 11 shots to open a 19-10 lead with 12:28 to play in the first half. Davis had six of Upstate's first 12 points, while Chavis nailed a pair of three-pointers to give the Spartans the lead.

ETSU got within two, 27-25, on Jones' bucket with 6:13 to play, but Gabor Boros answered with his second three-pointer of the game to extend Upstate's lead to five, 30-25, with 5:02 remaining. After the Buccaneers cut the lead to three, the Spartans rattled off four-straight points on a pair of free throws by Nick Schneiders and a layup by Davis to extend the lead to seven, 34-27.

Mike Smith almost single-handedly kept ETSU in the game in the first half. He scored 12 points, including the final seven of the half, to lead ETSU as the Buccaneers closed out the half with a 5-2 spurt and held Upstate scoreless for the final 2:21 to cut the Upstate lead to 36-32 at the intermission.

Upstate finished the half shooting 52 percent from the field, hitting 12-of-23 shots. ETSU shot just 39 percent from the floor, converting 12-of-31 shots in the half. Davis was the catalyst for Upstate, finishing the first 20 minutes with 10 points.

ETSU rallied into the lead early in the second half, scoring nine of the first 11 points in the half to take a 41-38 lead. Greg Hamlin scored seven of the points, including a pair of free throws at the 17:02 mark to give the Bucs their biggest lead of the night at that point, three points.

Nick Schneiders' turnaround jumper with 47 seconds into the half was all the offense the Spartans could muster in the first six minutes as Upstate missed eight of its first 10 shots to open the half.

Leading by three, ETSU used two missed shots and a turnover by Upstate and turned the Spartans' misfortune into seven unanswered points to open a 10-point lead, 50-40, with 11:31 to play. Courtney Pigram capped off the run with a three-pointer from the corner.

As Upstate continued to struggle from the field, ETSU extended its lead. The Buccaneers sank eight-straight free throws to open a 62-44 lead with 8:31 to play.

Upstate would not go away, though, and cut the lead to 10 with 2:21 to play in the game. The Spartans were able to cut the lead to eight on two occasions with under a minute to play but could get no closer as ETSU took the 10-point win.

As hot as Upstate was from the field in the first half, the Spartans cooled off in the second half, especially early. Upstate missed eight of its first 10 shots. At one point, the Spartans hit just 26 percent from the field in the half. The Spartans rallied to shoot 42 percent from the field for the half and 46 percent for the game. ETSU shot nearly 55 percent from the field in the half, improving by 16 percent from the first half. The Bucs also benefitted from converting 25-of-29 free throw attempts in the second half as compared to Upstate's 1-of-3 .

Davis led the way with 18 points, seven rebounds and three assists for Upstate. Schneiders added a strong 16 points and eight boards, while Chavis added 15 on five three-pointers.

Pigram and Smith each finished with 22 points to lead ETSU on the night. Pigram made 13-of-14 attempts from the free throw line. Kevin Tiggs added 18 points and five rebounds, while Greg Hamlin added a double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds.