University of South Carolina Upstate Athletics
0-1
Texas A&M
1-0
Upstate Falls at Texas A&M in Season Opener
11/13/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
College Station, Texas – DJ Hogg scored a game-high 20 points to lead the Texas A&M Aggies to a 104-64 season-opening victory over the USC Upstate men's basketball team in front of 6,552 fans Friday evening from Reed Arena.
Upstate starts the season 0-1 while Texas A&M improves to 1-0.
Josh Cuthbertson turned in a team-high 15 points, falling just one shy of tying his career-high, and seven rebounds to lead the Spartans, while Michael Buchanan added 10 points and five rebounds.
Hogg was one of five Aggies to finish with at least 10 points and Tyler Davis pulled down a team-best seven rebounds. Davis also had 16 points and was joined in double-figures by Admon Gilder (16), Danuel House (15) and Tonny Trocha-Morelos (12).
Deion Holmes connected on his first collegiate three-pointer to give Upstate an early 3-0 lead just over a minute into the contest. Texas A&M answered with nine straight points to go in front 9-3 less than three minutes later on a three by House. Damian Goodwin kept the Spartans within two, 12-10, at the 14:22 mark with his layup before the Aggies went on a quick 7-0 run to lead 19-10 following another three by House.
Gilber gave Texas A&M its first double-digit lead of the night at 22-12 with 12:41 remaining on his three-pointer. The Aggies used a 20-10 run over a stretch of 7:57 to go in front 42-22 capped by Tavario Miller's dunk. Texas A&M took its largest lead of the first half with 1:20 left after a pair of free-throws by Elijah Thomas put the score at 52-28. Upstate trailed 52-32 at halftime as Jure Span recorded two free-throws with seven seconds remaining before intermission.
Cuthbertson came out of the locker room and immediately hit a three to trim the Spartan deficit to 52-35. The Aggies went back ahead by 20 shortly thereafter with two free-throws from Davis, and would lead by at least 20 the rest of the way. Thomas gave Texas A&M its largest lead of the game with 2:38 to go as his layup provided it a 99-58 lead. Another basket by Thomas as time expired put the final score at 104-64.
Upstate finished the game shooting 33.3% (22-of-66) as a team while the Aggies posted a 66.7% (38-of-57) shooting percentage. The Spartans were 7-for-23 (30.4%) behind the three-point line and 13-for-23 (56.5%) at the charity stripe.
Upstate held an 18-17 advantage in points off turnovers and led 13-10 in offensive rebounds.
The Spartans continue their season-opening road trip Monday evening at 7 p.m. against Presbyterian College.
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