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SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Torrey Craig (Great Falls, S.C.) and Ty Greene (Knoxville, Tenn.) each recorded career-highs as the USC Upstate men's basketball team claimed a 13-point victory over Florida Gulf Coast Thursday night inside the Hodge Center.

"We played pretty well during the first 28 minutes," said head coach Eddie Payne.  "They made a comeback and we didn't get some loose balls that allowed them to score 23 second-chance points, most of which came in the second half.  We had 20 assists tonight, so we did a nice job moving the ball around tonight.  But, overall we are pleased and now we have 19 wins." 

The Spartans (19-11, 12-5 Atlantic Sun) set a Division I era record with 15 three-pointers Thursday night.  Craig and Greene combined for 13 of the Spartans' 15 triples.

With Upstate's victory and a win by Mercer over Lipscomb Thursday, the top three seeds in next week's A-Sun Tournament are now set.  Upstate will be the three seed in the eight team event, while Belmont will be the top seed, followed by Mercer.

The Spartans opened the contest on a 20-8 run over the first 6:28 of the contest.  During the Spartan surge, Greene and Mario Blessing (Kusterdingen, Germany) each hit a three-pointer, while Craig connected on back-to-back-to-back-to-back triples.

After FGCU (13-15, 8-9) trimmed the deficit to just nine (28-19) with 6:03 to play in the half, the Spartans responded with an 18-5 run to close out the first 20 minutes of action.  The Spartan run gave the home team a 46-24 lead at intermission.  Half of the Spartans points during the final run of the half came from beyond the arc and in all, Upstate canned 10 triples in the first half (Craig, 6; Greene, 3; Blessing, 1).

Upstate continued to increase its lead as the team took its largest lead of the contest, 28 (66-38) with 13:21 remaining on the clock.  Over the first six-plus minutes of the second half, the Spartans sank four three-pointers. 

After Craig hit a three-pointer to give the Spartans a 73-52 lead with 8:57 to play, the Eagles began a comeback attempt. 

FGCU used a 20-6 run to cut the Spartan lead to just seven (79-72) with just under 90 seconds to play. 

The Spartans, despite struggling at the free throw line down the stretch, survived the FGCU rally as Upstate claimed the 13-point victory.

Craig tallied a career-high 30 points as he became the first player since Josh Chavis to tally 30 or more points in a game.  Chavis, who owns the school-record for three-pointers in a game (10), tallied 34 (vs. FGCU, 12/14/09).  Greene tallied a career-high 22 points, while Ricardo Glenn (Augusta, Ga.) recorded a double-double with 11 points and 14 rebounds.

The Spartans tallied 20 assists on 28 made field goals Thursday night.

Sherwood Brown and Bernard Thompson paced the Eagles with 24 and 20 points, respectively. 

Upstate will close out the 2011-12 home slate Saturday afternoon when they host Stetson at 2 p.m.  Fans are encouraged to show up early as the Spartans will honor departing seniors Chalmers Rogers (Fort Mill, S.C.) and Carter Cook (Winston-Salem, N.C.).