SPARTANBURG, S.C. – For the second time this season and first time in Big South Conference play, USC Upstate men's basketball saw five double-figure scorers, including two Spartans posting career-high scoring totals and another tallying a career-high in Upstate's 2021-22 conference slate.
 
Leading the quintet of double-figure scorers, senior forward Bryson Mozone secured his 10^th double-figure scoring game of the season—his seventh 15-plus point effort—with 17 points. Just behind Mozone, freshman guard Jordan Gainey dropped a career-high 16 points, shooting 4-of-6 from the field and 2-of-2 from beyond the arc.
 
Senior guard Dalvin White added a season-high 14 points, shooting 50 percent (5-of-10) from the floor and 57 percent (4-of-7) from three. Rounding out the Spartans' double-figure scoring, sophomore guard Quentin Hodge tallied a career-high 12 points while senior forward Josh Aldrich added 11 points.
 
Game Information
Score: Radford 82; USC Upstate 7-7
Records: USC Upstate (3-10; 0-1 Big South); Radford (5-8; 1-0 Big South)
Location: G.B. Hodge Center | Spartanburg, S.C.
 
How It Happened
First Half

• Trading baskets to open the game, Radford and USC Upstate transitioned this into back-to-back short scoring runs as the Highlanders used a 4-0 scoring run to regain the lead before the Spartans reclaimed the lead with a 5-0 run during the game's first four minutes.
• Over the middle 12 minutes of the half, Upstate and Radford remained in lockstep with one another as the teams traded the lead back-and-forth as neither team made more than two consecutive field goals and/or free throws, with the stretch finishing with Upstate leading 34-33.
• Continuing the string of trading baskets and/or free throws, Upstate's Josh Aldrich and Jordan Gainey used consecutive free throws and a three-pointer to fabricate a 5-0 scoring run, resulting in a six-point Spartan advantage—the largest lead of the first half—that forced a Radford timeout.
• Out of the timeout, the Highlanders answered with back-to-back field goals to pull within a score at 39-37, but Upstate scored five of the final seven points of the half to teak a five-point lead into the locker room.

Second Half

• Opening the second half, the two teams again traded baskets as Radford looked to trim Upstate's five-point halftime lead with Upstate keeping the lead at multiple possessions with an Aldrich hook shot out of the half's first media timeout.
• Radford regained the lead for the first time since 5:36 remaining in the first half using an 8-0 run as a pair of 2-for-2 free throw conversions bookended a pair of Highlander layups.
• Quentin Hodge took back the lead for the Spartans as he scored six consecutive points, pushing Upstate ahead, 56-54 with 11:19 to play in the half.
• After Bryson Mozone dropped in a layup out of the second half's under-8 media timeout to give Upstate a 62-60 advantage, Radford embarked on the game's longest scoring run, 14-0, to push the Highlander advantage to double digits.
• Seeing the Radford lead grow to as large as 13, Upstate ended the game outscoring the Highlanders 14-6 over the game's final two minutes as Radford tallied each of its points in the stretch from the free throw line.

 
Notable

• Leading Upstate with 17 points Thursday night, Bryson Mozone tallied his team-leading 10^th double-figure scoring outing of the season. Thursday's game also marked the seventh this season for Mozone to total 15 or more points.
• As part of a group of five double-figure scorers—the second game this season with five double-figure scorers—Jordan Gainey and Quentin Hodge dropped 16 and 12 points, respectively. For Gainey, Thursday's game bests his 15 points scored against Western Carolina on Dec. 4, 2021, while Hodge's total eclipses his 10 points versus Southern Wesleyan on Nov. 25, 2020.
• Swiping five steals against Radford, Cartier Jernigan tallied the most steals by a Spartan in a game this season, becoming the first Upstate player to post five steals in a game since Jernigan swiped a career-high six steals versus Truett-McConnell on Nov. 8, 2019.

 
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