Jan. 7, 2010

Box Score

Nashville, Tenn. - Mezie Uzochukwu recorded his second straight double-double, finishing with 13 points and 10 rebounds, but the effort was not enough as Upstate took a 68-58 loss at the hands of host Belmont Thursday evening in the Curb Event Center.

Uzochukwu entered the game after tallying 11 points and 10 rebounds to lead Upstate against ETSU Monday afternoon. The performance nearly led the Spartans to an upset of the Buccaneers before falling by one, 63-62. Thursday against Belmont, Uzochukwu sparked Upstate and allowed the Spartans to turn in its best performance in three meetings against Belmont in Nashville. Upstate entered the game having lost its previous two games against Belmont in Nashville by 24 and 20 points.

"Mezie really battles," said Upstate head coach Eddie Payne. "I have a lot of respect for him and how he is playing."

Upstate fell to 1-13 overall and 1-4 in the A-Sun with the loss. The Spartans will stay in Music City to take on Lipscomb Saturday evening at 6:15 pm CT, 7:15 pm ET. Belmont improved to 9-6 overall and 4-1 in the A-Sun with the win.

"We are playing better overall," said Payne. "We are more aggressive and are playing better defensively. But, we seem to play better when we get behind by eight or 10 points. We have to get to the point where we think about what our particular job is on each particular possession. It's a difficult thing to do with the confidence issues that we have. Having said that, we are playing better. We have had some really good practices and we just need to take it one day at a time."

Belmont started the game red hot from the field, hitting its first six shots en route to opening a 13-2 lead in the first 3:37 of the game. Despite cutting the lead to six with 12:12 to play in the half, Upstate could not match Belmont's ability to hit the three-pointer or handle the Bruins inside. Belmont increased its lead to 12 points with 6:55 to play before the intermission.

Just as Upstate seemed poised to go into halftime with a double digit deficit, the Spartans mounted a comeback to get within four at halftime. Nick Schneiders started things off with three straight points and Uzochukwu added a jumper to cut the lead to seven.

After Belmont countered to push the lead to nine with 3:59 to play, Upstate scored seven of the next eight points to close within 33-29 at halftime. The Spartans shot 39 percent from the field in the half, while Belmont shot 50 percent from the floor.

Upstate continued to battle early in the second half and cut the lead to two on two occasions, both times on buckets from Uzochukwu. Just as Upstate closed in on Belmont, the Bruins made a decisive run to put the game away. Ian Clark's three-pointer started a 10-0 run that put Belmont ahead by 12, 49-37, with 12:43 to play in the game. Upstate would only get as close as eight the rest of the way, and that came with 15 seconds to play.

Upstate cut the 14-point deficit to 10 on Caleb Palkert's three-point play with 11:50 to play, but Belmont responded by pushing the lead to 16 points on three different occasions and coasted to the win. Upstate did battle to cut the deficit in half, showing determination to the end of the game.

Scott Saunders led three Belmont players in double figures, finishing with a career-high 19 points to go along with eight rebounds and two blocked shots. Mick Hedgepeth added a double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds. Clark added 13 points and three assists.

Josh Chavis finished with 12 points to put two Spartans in double figures. He also grabbed four rebounds and added two assists. Nick Schneiders added eight points, five rebounds and three assists off the bench, while Palkert tied a career high with seven points.