Feb. 9, 2009
Box Score
Spartanburg, S.C. -
Mezie Uzochukwu poured in a career-high 22 points and USC Upstate played a scrappy game good enough to come away with a 71-62 victory over Florida Gulf Coast in A-Sun men's basketball action Monday night in the Hodge Center.
In front of a raucous crowd that included former Super Bowl-winning quarterback Brad Johnson, Upstate improved to 7-16 overall and 6-8 in the A-Sun. Johnson was in town visiting his former high school coach and current Upstate assistant coach Bill Burrows. The Spartans surpassed last year's A-Sun win total with their sixth win of the season and equaled last year's overall win total of seven. The victory was also Upstate's third in a row overall, the largest winning streak since the program made the transition to NCAA Division I last year, and the fourth-straight home win. FGCU fell to 10-17 overall and 6-10 in the conference. The Eagles have lost six of their last seven games.
With Bobby Davis, Nick Schneiders and Gabor Boros suffering from flu-like symptoms, head coach Eddie Payne and the Spartans needed someone to step up and provide a spark for Upstate. Uzochukwu delivered with 22 points to top his former career-high of 16 scored at Kennesaw State earlier this year.
"It was important for us to knock down some shots to free things up for Bobby (Davis) and Nick (Schneiders)," said Uzochukwu. "The further we go in the season, the more we know that they are going to get doubled. I wanted to get some confidence, get a rhythm going and knock down some shots and that's what I did."
However, Uzochukwu was not alone in contributing to the win. Pat Posey came up with two blocked shots in the final 30 seconds as Florida Gulf Coast attempted to rally back into the game. The first blocked shot came when Upstate led 65-60 and FGCU's Derrick O'Neil was going up for a layup. Posey swatted the shot away and Boros came up with the rebound. With Upstate leading by seven, Posey blocked a three-point attempt by Delvin Franklin with eight seconds to play and Boros again hauled in the rebound to put the game away. Posey finished the game with four points, two rebounds, two steals and two blocks in 13 minutes.
"Pat had his best contribution of the season," said Payne. "He was active, he had a couple of blocks, he did a nice job defensively and made his free throws. Those were his most productive minutes he has played this year."
Despite feeling ill on the night, Davis managed to record his 10th double-double of the season. He finished with 10 points and 11 rebounds. He entered the game as the only player in the country to lead his team in scoring, rebounding, assists, steals and field goal percentage. Josh Chavis added a solid nine points, six rebounds and five assists.
In what was an increasingly physical match-up as the game progressed, Upstate and Florida Gulf Coast kept punching and counter-punching in the first half. Neither team was able to grab a lead larger than six points as the lead changed hands six times in the first 20 minutes of play. After the Spartans opened a 23-17 lead with 5:11 to play, FGCU countered with an 8-0 run to take a 25-23 lead. The Spartans got the lead back and went into halftime with a 27-26 advantage.
After Florida Gulf Coast took a 28-27 lead on Kyle Marks' jumper to open the second half, Upstate stormed into the lead with a 15-2 run over the next four minutes to open a 42-30 advantage with 15:17 to play. The Spartans maintained its double-digit lead, holding a 54-42 edge with 9:47 to play. That's when FGCU fought to get back into the game.
The Eagles rattled off a 9-2 run over the next three minutes to cut Upstate's lead to five, 56-51. However, Uzochukwu's jumper gave the Spartans a seven-point lead with 5:54 to play. Despite being held without a field goal for the remainder of the game, the Spartans held on for the win by converting 13-of-14 free throws the rest of the way. Upstate finished the game 29-of-37 from the line.
Upstate turned in another solid defensive performance. The Spartans held Florida Gulf Coast to 35 percent shooting for the game. It marked the third-straight game in which opponents were held to under 38 percent shooting, all wins for the Spartans. In fact, Upstate has held opponents under 40 percent shooting in each of its last five victories of the year.
The only Eagle to get things going in the game was Reed Baker. He finished with a game-high 24 points. However, after scoring 20 in the first half on 6-of-10 shooting, he was held to four points in the second half and made just 1-of-9 shots in the final 20 minutes of play.
"I thought, defensively, we were really good except for the first half on Baker," said Payne. "Nobody else got going and that was the story of the game. Defensively, we were pretty good."
