Jan. 23, 2010

Box Score

Jacksonville, Fla. - Upstate went scoreless for the first 4:36 of the second half as Jacksonville erased a seven-point halftime deficit and outscored the Spartans by 20 in the second half to take a 65-52 victory Saturday afternoon in Swisher Gymnasium.

Upstate, which had several players and coaches suffering with cold and flu-like symptoms, fell to 3-16 overall and 3-7 in the A-Sun with the loss. The Spartans had their two-game winning streak snapped by the Dolphins who avenged their loss at home to Upstate a year ago. Jacksonville improved to 10-8 overall and 7-3 in the league, extending its winning streak to seven games.

"We played pretty well in the first half," said Upstate head coach Eddie Payne, who was back on the sideline after missing Thursday night's game at North Florida with the flu. "In fact, we played three really good halves this trip. But, the second half got us today. It was a very disappointing second half. We are spent. We had a lot of guys who were sick and that took its toll on us."

Pat Posey turned in his second strong game against Jacksonville since joining the Spartans last year. He finished with a team-high 15 points to go along with six rebounds. Nick Schneiders added 12 points, six rebounds and three blocked shots.

Upstate fought to maintain control throughout the first half and opened a 29-22 lead at halftime. The Spartans gained control early with seven straight points to open the game and held a 9-1 lead with 17:02 to play.

After Jacksonville cut the lead to two a minute later, Upstate pushed the lead back to nine at the 12:03 mark. Jacksonville again battled to cut into the lead and used an 8-0 run to get within one, 16-15, with 9:24 to play. But, just like before, Upstate countered and increased its lead to eight with 4:53 to play. The 7-0 run was keyed by four straight points from Posey.

Upstate went into the half with a seven-point lead due to a solid defensive effort on Jacksonville's Ben Smith. Smith, who entered the game averaging just under 20 points per game, went scoreless in the first half and was 0-for-6 from the field and 0-for-5 from the three-point arc.

"We did a good job guarding him (Smith) in the first half," said Payne. "We did a good job with the ball screen and really made it tough for him to get open looks."

Upstate held Jacksonville to 24 percent shooting from the field, while Upstate shot a blistering 59 percent from the floor.

Despite getting some solid looks early in the second half, Upstate could not get anything to fall. The Spartans missed three shots and turned the ball over three times to start the half. It wasn't until Schneiders hit a turnaround jumper from eight feet at the 15:24 mark of the half that Upstate cracked the scoreboard. By then, Jacksonville had erased the seven-point deficit it faced at halftime.

Jacksonville took a seven-point lead at the 12:50 mark and increased it to 10 points for with 8:58 to play on a pair of free throws from Russell Powell. Upstate continued to battle and cut the lead to five on two occasions, the last on a jumper from Caleb Palkert with 7:06 to play, but the Spartans would get no closer as Jacksonville took the win.

Mezie Uzochukwu was solid for Upstate. He finished with nine points and seven rebounds as Upstate finished the game shooting 50 percent from the field. However, the Spartans made just 1-of-9 three-point attempts and struggled from the line while making 11-of-22 from the charity stripe.

Smith scored 15 points in the second half to lead Jacksonville's push to take the lead and the win. He also added seven assists and three steals. Ayron Hardy added 13 points, while Lemon Colbert finished with 10 points and eight boards. The Dolphins shot 38 percent from the field and 33 percent from the three-point arc, while hitting 18-of-25 from the free throw line. Jacksonville also forced Upstate into 25 turnovers and grabbed 16 offensive rebounds to take 16 more shots than the Spartans in the game.