Box Score (.pdf)

Omaha, Neb. – Malik Moore scored a team-leading 15 points, and Avery Diggs added a career-high 10, as the USC Upstate men's basketball team closed out the road portion of its non-conference schedule on Wednesday evening with a 116-62 loss to the 25^th-ranked Creighton Bluejays at CenturyLink Center Omaha.

Upstate falls to 4-11 on the season while Creighton improves to 10-2 overall.

A LOOK AT THE NUMBERS

• Moore finished the game shooting 6-of-15 from the field to lead the Spartans offensively with 15 points. He also grabbed a team-high six rebounds to go with three assists.
• Diggs came off the bench in the second half to shoot 5-for-8 overall and recorded a new career-high of 10 points. His previous career-best point total was eight versus Bowling Green on Nov. 24 at the Creek Classic.
• Deion Holmes recorded nine points while Mike Cunningham and Jure Span contributed eight each.
• Ramel Thompkins pulled down five rebounds.
• Marcus Foster was one of six Bluejays to finish in double-figures with a game-high 16 points.
• Toby Hegner and Mitch Ballock posted 13 points apiece, Ty-Shon Alexander 11, and Khyri Thomas and Tyler Clement 10 each.
• Manny Suarez led Creighton defensively with a game-high nine rebounds.
• Upstate concluded the contest shooting 34.7 percent (26-for-75) from the field and made five of its six free throw attempts for an 83.3 percent clip.
• The Spartans held a 12-6 advantage in offensive rebounds and 9-6 in second chance points.
• Upstate also recorded 34 points in the paint and 29 bench points led by the 10 from Diggs.

FIRST HALF BREAKDOWN

• Span gave the Spartans the early 3-0 lead less than a minute into the contest as Cunningham's steal led to the triple.
• The Bluejays would go ahead by four points before Cunningham knocked down a 3-pointer to make the score 7-6 at the 17:40 mark.
• Moore kept the Upstate deficit at three points, 11-8, with 16:03 remaining after his layup.
• Creighton followed with a 24-5 run over the next 6:53 and went in front 35-13 on a tip-in basket by Thomas.
• The Spartans got as close as 13 points during the run when a 3-pointer by Cunningham cut their deficit down to 26-13.
• The Bluejays took their largest lead of the half at 58-24 with 51 seconds left and went into intermission leading by that margin.

SECOND HALF BREAKDOWN

• Upstate outscored Creighton 8-6 to begin the second half and trailed 64-34 with 16:58 to go on a dunk by Diggs.
• The Spartans opened the half on an 8-2 run with Diggs scoring six of the points and Moore two.
• Diggs collected eight of his 10 points within the first 3:02 of the half.
• Upstate got as close as 28 points, 60-32, during that stretch on a layup by Diggs at the 17:49 mark.
• The Spartans trailed by 35 points three times over a two-minute run with the last coming at 77-42 with 13:03 to go on a jumper by Isaiah Anderson.
• Creighton led by at least 40 points over the game's final 11:30.
• The Bluejays took their largest lead of the contest at 116-60 with 32 seconds remaining.
• A layup by Diggs as time expired put the final score at 116-62.

UP NEXT

• Upstate is taking the next nine days off before returning to action on Saturday, December 30 at 2 p.m. when it hosts North Greenville.

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