Spartans Test South Carolina Thursday in Columbia
12/18/2013 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Game 11: USC Upstate (5-5) vs. South Carolina (2-4)
Thursday | 12.19.2013 | 4:00 p.m. EST | SportSouth
Columbia, S.C. | Colonial Life Arena
Spartanburg, S.C. – The USC Upstate men's basketball team looks to return to its winning ways Thursday at 4 p.m. when the Spartans travel to Columbia, S.C., to take on South Carolina from Colonial Life Arena.
Upstate enters play with a 5-5 overall record following its 73-63 setback to UNC Asheville on Sunday. Spartans Torrey Craig and Ty Greene each scored 19 points, but hot shooting from UNC Asheville guards Andrew Rowsey and David Robertson helped lift the Bulldogs to the victory.
Craig continues to pace the Spartans and the Atlantic Sun with his 18.2 points per game. The Great Falls, S.C., native is looking to become just the second player in A-Sun history to lead the conference in scoring for three straight years. Greene ranks second on the team and fifth in the A-Sun with 14.9 points per game, while Ricardo Glenn is third on the team and 14th in the league with 11.6 points per game.
USC Upstate and South Carolina will be meeting on the hardwood for the fourth time when the two teams tipoff Thursday afternoon. The Gamecocks own a 3-0 record in the all-time series that dates back to the 2008-09 season. In the most recent meeting, South Carolina hung on for a 72-66 victory on New Year's Eve in 2011. In that game, Upstate trailed by as many as 11 points in the second half before cutting the South Carolina deficit to just two points with 44 seconds to play. The Gamecocks, however, would use a tip-in and a pair of free throws to hold off the Spartans.
USC Upstate is 0-8 all-time against teams from the Southeastern Conference. The Spartans are 0-1 all-time against Arkansas, Auburn, Georgia, Ole Miss and Tennessee, and are 0-3 all-time against South Carolina. Earlier this year, Upstate fell 74-65 at Tennessee despite leading by as many as 13 points and nine points with 12:33 left in the game.
South Carolina enters play with a 2-4 overall record following its 86-68 home loss to Manhattan Tuesday night. The Gamecocks have not won since Nov. 24 and have lost their last two games by an average of 22.5 points. Freshman guard Sindarius Thornwell leads South Carolina with 12.7 points per game.
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