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Post-Game Notes

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SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The USC Upstate men's basketball team showed little signs of a post-Thanksgiving letdown as it jumped out to a 16-4 lead early and cruised to a 15-point victory over Texas-Pan American Friday afternoon inside the Hodge Center.

The Spartans (4-2) opened the contest on a 16-4 run over the first 6:47 of the contest, five different Upstate players scored during the run.  Torrey Craig (Great Falls, S.C.) highlighted the early surge with seven points.

"I told our players after the game that they did a good job today," said head coach Eddie Payne.  "We didn't have any unbelievable runs today, but we also did not suffer any lengthy droughts.  We want to get to the point where we can push a 15 or 16 point advantage to 20, rather than letting a team climb back into the contest, but all in all our players responded very well today."

The Broncs (2-5) made things interesting with a quick 9-0 spurt to cut the deficit to just three points, 16-13, with 10:23 remaining in the half. 

Upstate was able to push the lead back to double-digits with 4:25 to play when Ty Greene (Knoxville, Tenn.) sank his lone triple of the contest.  Greene's three-pointer gave Upstate a 27-17 advantage.  The lead grew to as many as 16 (35-19), before the halftime margin was set at 13 points (40-27).

The Spartans opened the half on a 5-0 run to push the lead to 18, the squad's largest lead of the day.  Babatunde Olumuyiwa's (Athens, Ga.) lay-up with 16:56 remaining gave Upstate a 45-27 lead.

The Broncs chipped into the Spartan lead and found themselves down just nine points (49-40) with 13:05 remaining.  Upstate went back in front by double-digits when Carter Cook (Winston-Salem, N.C.) connected on his jumper in the paint while in the act of shooting.  Cook sank the free throw, giving Upstate a 52-40 lead with 12:35 to play.

"Coach Payne always tells us that defense will lead to offense," said sophomore forward Torrey Craig.  "Our mentality today was to play tough defense and that lead to a lot of our offense today."

Upstate maintained a double-digit lead over the final 12 minutes as the squad claimed a 78-63 victory to improve to 2-0 in the Hodge Center this season.

The Spartans will return to action Sunday afternoon when they host Victory University at 4 p.m.