Feb. 17, 2010

Box Score

Buies Creek, N.C. - Despite forcing Campbell star Jonathan Rodriguez to the bench with three fouls in the first half, Upstate could not counter the performance of Lorne Merthie as the sophomore made six three-pointers in the first half and finished with 21 points to lead the Camels to a 66-46 victory over the Spartans Wednesday night in Gore Arena.

Upstate fell to 5-21 overall and 5-12 in the A-Sun with the loss. Campbell improved to 17-9 overall and 12-5 in the league with the win. The Camels sit alone atop the conference standings.

"Campbell played pretty well and I don't think we played particularly well at all," said Upstate head coach Eddie Payne. "They shot the ball extremely well. Our guards had a tough time penetrating their zone, which really hurt us. We committed some turnovers against their full court press. When we were able to get the ball into the high post, we pressed and made some mistakes. We just didn't play very well tonight."

Campbell turned in a strong first half, sparked by the play of Merthie. The Camels shot 48 percent from the floor, 70 percent from the three-point arc and 83 percent from the free throw line to vault out to an 18-point lead at halftime. All of that was done with Rodriguez sitting the bench for 10 minutes.

Rodriguez, a candidate for league player of the year honors, picked up his third foul at the 12:15 mark and was forced to the bench. Although he returned to the floor in the half, he played in small spurts and was not effective the rest of the half.

It didn't really matter as Merthie had the hot hand. He nailed 6-of-7 from three-point land to finish the half with 18 points. His performance, and Upstate's inability to shoot well from the floor while committing 10 turnovers, allowed Campbell to gain control of the game. Upstate shot just 35 percent in the first half. Campbell turned Upstate's 10 turnovers into 14 points.

Campbell used an 11-0 run early in the first half to open a 13-2 lead and never looked back. Upstate used an 8-0 run to cut the Camel lead to five, 18-13, with 11:49 to play before halftime, but Campbell responded with an 8-2 run to push the lead back to 11.

After Upstate cut the lead back to single digits, Campbell closed the half by outscoring the Spartans 17-7 to open a 43-25 lead at the intermission.

Upstate played much better in the second half, but could not really make a run to get back into the game. The Spartans cut the lead to 16 three times in the half, but Campbell managed to push the lead to as many as 26 before taking the 66-46 win.

Campbell finished the game shooting 39 percent as Upstate held the Camels to 27 percent shooting in the second half. Upstate shot 37 percent for the game.

Merthie finished with 21 points and two steals to lead Campbell. Rodriguez rallied in the second half and finished with 15 points and eight rebounds. Amir Celestin added 11 points for the Camels.

Josh Chavis came off the bench to lead Upstate with 12 points and three assists. Ryan LeGates added 10 points, four rebounds and two assists. Nick Schneiders, who played just seven minutes in the first half, finished with eight points, six rebounds and four blocked shots. He topped the 200-block plateau in his career and now has 202 in his four years in the program.