Feb. 28, 2009

Box Score

Spartanburg, S.C. - On an emotional Senior Day when the USC Upstate faithful said thank you to seniors Gabor Boros, Bobby Davis and Zac Rich, junior Nick Schneiders and sophomore Josh Chavis were simply dominant to lead the Spartans and the three seniors to an 80-51 victory over Kennesaw State Saturday afternoon in the Hodge Center.

Saturday's game was Upstate's home finale, but the Spartans still have one more game remaining on the schedule, a match-up at No. 17 Gonzaga Tuesday night at 9:00 p.m. Eastern. Upstate improved to 9-20 overall and 8-12 in the A-Sun. The Spartans will finish the regular season ahead of Florida Gulf Coast, North Florida and Kennesaw State in the A-Sun standings. All four schools are have provisional status in NCAA Division I as the institutions play in their early years in DI membership. Upstate ended the home portion of its season 7-4 in the Hodge Center, 7-3 at home against A-Sun foes. Kennesaw State finished the season with a 7-22 overall record and a 3-17 mark in the league.

Boros, Davis and Rich were honored in a pregame ceremony. The emotion of the day was lost on no one as all three have made impacts on the program. Davis, who is the only player in the nation to lead his team in scoring, rebounding, assists, steals and field goal percentage, finished the game with nine points, seven rebounds, three steals and two assists after being double-teamed throughout the contest. He took just four shots in the game. Boros added nine points, five assists and two steals, while Rich, who started for the first time this season, sank an early three-pointer and finished the game with six points.

Upstate grabbed momentum early and were never really challenged by Kennesaw State en route to a 29-point victory. The 29-point victory is the largest of the season and the largest in the Division I era for Upstate. Chavis and Rich opened the game with back-to-back three-pointers and Nick Schneiders had 10 points in the first seven minutes as the Spartans opened a 19-8 lead with 13:07 to play before halftime.

After Kennesaw State used a 11-4 run to cut the Upstate advantage to four, the Spartans scored six unanswered points and closed the half on a 12-2 run to take a commanding 35-21 lead at the intermission. Upstate shot nearly 55 percent in the half and converted 4-of-7 from the three-point arc. The Spartans held Kennesaw State to 30 percent shooting from the field.

While Kennesaw State focused much of its defensive efforts on stopping Davis and preventing him from getting touches, Nick Schneiders showed why that was not a good idea. He turned in a dominant first half with 16 points and four blocked shots. He finished the game with 20 points, two off his career-high, and tied a career-high with seven blocks.

"They couldn't guard Nick and we did a really good job of going to him in the first half," said Upstate head coach Eddie Payne. "We kept saying that if we got good ball reversals and isolations in the post, we would be in good shape. That's what happened and it worked out well for us."

Upstate did not allow Kennesaw State to come out of halftime and make a run at cutting into the deficit. Instead, the Spartans increased its lead to 21 points with 13:06 to play in the game and cruised to the win.

"The description of that game was jab, jab, jab. We never took flurries or a lot of hits from them. We managed to control the thing on a very methodical, possession-by-possession approach. We were very consistent in our effort. Sometimes that's a hard thing to do when you are way ahead, but we stayed focused," said Payne.

With the game in hand, Upstate was able to empty its bench and 10 of the 13 players scored in the game. Pat Posey, who has come on in the last handful of games, finished with a solid seven points and seven rebounds off the bench.

Jon-Michael Nickerson, who sank a jumper on the baseline with less than a second to play to lift Kennesaw State to a 66-64 victory over Upstate on Dec. 1 in Kennesaw, Ga., led the Owls with 15 points and four rebounds. Spencer Dixon added 14 points, four rebounds and three assists.