Box Score (.pdf)

Spartanburg, S.C. – Mike Cunningham scored a game-high 17 points, including 15 in the second half, as the USC Upstate men's basketball team defeated the North Greenville Crusaders 70-58 Friday evening inside the Hodge Center.

Upstate improves to 2-9 on the season while North Greenville is 3-4 overall.

Cunningham's 17 points were one shy of tying his career-high, set last week at East Carolina, while shooting 5-of-8 from the field and 4-of-7 from three. Marvin Smith scored 14 points while grabbing a team-high seven rebounds along with Malik Moore. The seven rebounds by Moore are also a career-high for the freshman. Jure Span dished out five assists and had a career-high three blocks.

Korval McElroy and Miguel Cartagena each scored 14 points to lead North Greenville offensively. McElroy and Jai Jencks each pulled down seven rebounds, and McElroy added a game-high six assists.

After the teams traded baskets to open the game, North Greenville used a 5-0 run to lead 7-2 at the 15:36 mark on a tip-in basket by Jencks. The Spartans answered, using a Phillip Whittington jumper, to tie the contest at 9-9 just over three minutes later. A layup by Moore at the 10:52 mark sparked a string of four straight points for the Spartans before back-to-back McElroy layups tied the game at 17-17 with just over eight minutes to play in the half.

Cunningham's layup with 6:43 to play began a 5-0 run for Upstate to give it a 22-17 lead before consecutive three-pointers by McElroy and Cartagena gave NGU a one-point advantage, 23-22, with 1:36 remaining. Smith's jumper with 1:29 to go gave Upstate a 24-23 advantage before Troy Blyden sank a pair of free throws with 23 seconds left to give the Crusaders the lead back at 25-24. Span sent Upstate into halftime leading 26-25 thanks to a layup with seven seconds remaining.

Following a Cunningham three-pointer that gave Upstate a 31-27 lead early in the second half, North Greenville used a Justin Dotson layup to tie the game 31-31. The Spartans went on a 13-4 run to take a 44-35 lead with just over 12 minutes to play. North Greenville trimmed the Upstate advantage to 45-40 following a Cartagena three-pointer, but the Spartans used a three by Cunningham to take a 52-40 lead at the 9:59 mark.

North Greenville would pull to within eight, 60-52, following a Matt Moore three-pointer with 5:53 to play. Michael Buchanan's free throw with 2:08 remaining gave Upstate a 63-52 lead and snapped a scoreless drought of over three minutes.  A Blyden dunk brought the Crusaders to within eight, 65-57, with 1:24 to play, but the visitors would get no closer the rest of the way. Deion Holmes, who finished with a career-high three steals, followed the dunk with a three-pointer to put the Spartans back ahead by double-digits at 68-57. Smith's layup with 29 seconds left put the final score at 70-58.

Upstate finished the game shooting 29-for-61 (47.5%) from the field and held North Greenville to a 32.8% (21-for-64) clip, the lowest of any Spartan opponent this season. Upstate outscored North Greenville 38-22 in the paint and converted 17 Crusader turnovers into 22 points. The Spartan reserves outscored the North Greenville bench 25-10.

Upstate begins a two-game road trip Monday, Dec. 14 by traveling to Navy for a 7 p.m. contest against the Midshipmen.

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