Jan. 5, 2009

Box Score

Spartanburg, S.C. - Despite getting career-highs in scoring out of Nick Schneiders and Pat Posey, USC Upstate could not come all the back from a 17-point second half deficit as Jacksonville held off the Spartans for a 79-69 victory in A-Sun men's basketball action in the Hodge Center Monday night.

Jacksonville improved to 4-8 overall and 3-1 in the A-Sun with the win. Upstate fell to 2-11 overall and 1-3 in the league. The Spartans travel to Fort Myers, Fla., Saturday for a 2:00 p.m. showdown with Florida Gulf Coast.

Jacksonville's Chris Edwards hit a jumper with 9:15 to play in the game that capped an 8-0 Dolphin run to give the visitors a 17-point lead, 54-37. Behind the play of Posey and Schneiders, Upstate attempted to make a furious comeback to get back into the game. Posey scored nine points over the next eight minutes and Schneiders added five points as Upstate cut the 17-point deficit to five, 70-65, with 45 seconds to play. However, Jacksonville was able to make its free throws down the stretch and take advantage of Upstate's overplay on defense for a couple of easy buckets to take the 10-point win.

"I don't think we, as a team, believe we can win, yet," said Upstate head coach Eddie Payne. "We try to win games, but I don't really think we believe we can. There's positives we can point to, like not giving up any offensive rebounds in the second half after they had 15 in the first half, but until we believe we can win, we won't do it. We still don't have that instinctive thing you have to have to win games. We have young guys and they just make mistakes."

Jacksonville did grab 15 offensive rebounds in the first half and scored 13 second-chance points to help the Dolphins open a 26-21 lead at halftime. Exactly half of JU's points in the half came off offensive rebounds. The Dolphins also did a decent job of not allowing Upstate standout Bobby Davis get clean touches offensively, limiting his ability to score. He finished the first half with just two points and finished the game with seven, ending his four-game double-double streak despite pulling down a game-high 11 rebounds and dishing out six assists.

The game was a battle from the onset until Jacksonville used a small run to open a five-point lead midway through the half. Upstate fought back to tie the game at 21-21 with 2:05 to play in the half before the Dolphins scored the final five points to open the 26-21 halftime lead.

An early spurt in the second half set the tone for the second half. Jacksonville came out of the intermission and scored the first six points to take an 11-point lead in the first 2:21 of the half. After Upstate cut the lead to five at 38-33, the Dolphins made its decisive push, outscoring Upstate, 16-4, over the next four minutes to open its 17-point lead, 54-37, with 9:15 to play in the game.

Despite Upstate's attempt at a comeback, the lead never dipped below five the rest of the game as Jacksonville hung on for the win. The Dolphins finished the game shooting 50 percent from the field and connected on 6-of-18 from behind the three-point arc. Entering the game hitting just 64.1 percent of its free throws, Jacksonville converted 75 percent of its chances from the line against Upstate, hitting 15-of-20 for the game. Upstate shot 41.1 percent from the field for the game and was 5-of-14 from behind the arc, though the Spartans were 0-for-3 on trifectas in the first half.

Schneiders finished with a game and career-high 22 points to go along with nine rebounds and two blocked shots. Though he had just two blocks, he altered several Jacksonville shots inside. Posey added a career-high 19 points, more than doubling his previous career-high of nine points. He was a perfect 8-for-8 from the free throw line in the best game of his Upstate career.

"Coach has told me to always stay ready to play and to step up when called on," said Posey. "That's what I did tonight. Coach told me to be a spark and that's what I tried to do. We are a young team. When we get older and more experienced, hopefully we will learn how to finish games."

Travis Cohn led four Jacksonville players to finish in double figures. He had 18 points to go along with seven rebounds and four assists to lead the Dolphin cause. Ayron Hardy added 14 points, five assists and three steals. Ben Smith tallied 14 points, five rebounds, four assists and three steals in an all-around solid effort, while Lehmon Colbert finished with 12 points, five rebounds and five assists.