Rock Hill, S.C. – The USC Upstate men's basketball team fell 79-53 to Winthrop on Thursday evening in front of a crowd of 2,000 fans at the Winthrop Coliseum.
 
USC Upstate (7-13, 2-5 BSC) started the game shooting 75 percent from the field and 100 percent from beyond the arch as they went into the first media timeout tied with Winthrop (13-7, 7-0 BSC) at 7-7. Coming out of the media timeout Everette Hammond made one of two free throw to give the Spartans an 8-7 lead. The lead was short lived however as the Eagles went on an 8-2 run to take a 15-10 advantage over the Spartans with 11:36 remaining in the half.
 
The Spartans began to chip away at the Eagles lead and with 8:24 to go in the half Nevin Zink made the tying layup at 21-21. A Jamal King jump shot gave Winthrop the lead back with 7:38 remaining in the period. Moments later Bryson Mozone drove to the basket and made the contested rebound, he hit the go ahead free throw to complete the old fashioned three-point play.
 
Mozone began to click from behind the arch and knock down back-to-back three-pointers to help give the Spartans a 34-30 lead with two minutes to go in the half. Going into the halftime break the two squads were tied at 34.
 
Mozone led the Spartans with 9-points and Dalvin White went perfect from the field in the opening half to finish second on the team with 7-points. Hunter Hale led the Eagles with 7-points and DJ Burns Jr. contributed 6-points in the opening period of play.
 
USC Upstate ended the half shooting an even 50 percent from the field and 57 percent from behind the arch. Meanwhile, Winthrop shot 38 percent from the field and 17 percent from the three-point arch.
 
In the opening moments of the second half the two teams matched each other basket-for-basket. Then the Spartans went on a two minute scoring drought and allowed Winthrop to gain a 43-38 advantage with 15:37 remaining in the game.
 
The Spartan offense was never able to click in the second half as they scored just 19-points in the second stanza of action.  

Notes

Upstate – Mozone led the Spartan offense with 14-points off the bench and Hammond recorded a team high 6-rebounds and three assists in the loss.

Winthrop – Hunter Hale scored a game high 17-points and DJ Burns Jr. contributed 14 points.

UP next for the Spartans
USC Upstate will be back at home on Saturday, January 25 against UNC Asheville. Tip-off is slated for 4:00 p.m.

Tickets
Start at $8.00 (adults), $5.00 (ages 3-17); 864-503-7190 and upstatespartans.com.


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