JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Despite holding Jacksonville to its second lowest scoring output of the season, the Dolphins claimed the victory on Thursday night inside the Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena.

With the 57-47 overtime win, Jacksonville improves to 11-4 overall and 5-1 in league play, while USC Upstate dips to 2-14 on the season and sits 1-5 in the A-Sun.

The two teams battled throughout the first half, but it was the Spartans who owned a 25-20 advantage at halftime after Josh Chavis (Greensboro, N.C./Dudley HS) canned a three pointer from the left wing as time expired in the first 20 minutes.  The Spartans also out-rebounded the Dolphins 27-16 in the first period including owning a six rebound advantage on the offensive glass (12-6).

In the second half, Upstate was able to push its lead to six, 30-24, with 14:14 to play.  The Dolphins were able to tie the game at 30 as they used a 6-0 spurt in a span of 2:26.

Upstate was able to keep the Dolphins from maintaining the lead until the 4:07 mark when Tevin Galvin converted his layup in the paint.  Galvin's basket gave Jacksonville its first lead since the 10:57 mark of the first half, 13-11.

Jacksonville pushed its second half lead to as many as five with 3:24 remaining.  Upstate quickly battled back and Torrey Craig's (Rock Hill, S.C./Great Falls HS) fast break dunk with 2:18 to go tied the game at 42.

Keith McDougald put the Dolphins in front 45-42 after connecting on his lone trey of the game with a minute left.  Upstate tied the game at 45 when Chavis sank a three pointer from the top of the key with 23 seconds to play.

Jacksonville had a pair of chances to win the game in the final six seconds, but missed on both three point attempts.

In the overtime session, it was all Jacksonville as the Dolphins posted a 12-2 run in the five minute session.  The Dolphins were a perfect 3-for-3 from the floor and a perfect 6-for-6 from the free throw line in overtime.  Meanwhile the Spartans finished the overtime period 1-for-10 and its lone field goal was a put back dunk by Babatunde Olumuyiwa (Athens, Ga./Clarke Central HS) with 13 seconds remaining.

Thursday's loss marked the first time this season that the Spartans owned the halftime lead but lost the game.  Craig led all Spartans with 12 points while Chavis finished with nine.  Marquis Sloan (Greenville, S.C./Greenville HS) finished with seven.

Ayron Hardy and Keith McDougald led Jacksonville with 15 points each.

The Spartans out-rebounded the Dolphins, 48-44, and also led the way in points off of turnovers (11-10), second chance points (16-11) and bench scoring (20-16).

Jacksonville finished with a 14-point advantage in points in the paint (28-14) and committed 15 turnovers compared to 22 for Upstate.

The Spartans will continue its River City road swing on Saturday night.  The Spartans will battle North Florida at the UNF Arena with a tip-off scheduled for 7:00 p.m.