DURHAM, N.C. – Playing down to the wire for the second straight game and looking to avenge a last-second loss in the team's final meeting with North Carolina Central, USC Upstate men's basketball reversed its fortunes from the 2021-22 season and walked away with a victory in the final seconds with an 85-82 win Saturday.
 
Redshirt senior forward Ahmir Langlais' layup off a feed from redshirt junior guard Trae Broadnax with 1.4 seconds remaining gave Upstate the lead after North Carolina Central tied the game with 19 seconds to play. Icing the win, sophomore forward Jordyn Surratt drew a foul on the ensuing in-bounds play, splitting the free throws to ensure the Eagles needed a three to tie—a shot they wouldn't get off needing to go the length of the floor with less than two seconds remaining.
 
On the road in Tarheel State for the second time this season, Upstate saw four-plus double-figure scorers in a road win as four Spartans finished with 10 or more points Saturday. Langlais and redshirt junior guard Floyd Rideau Jr. paced Upstate with 14 points apiece, scoring 11 and 12 points in the second half, respectively, while freshman guard Justin Bailey and graduate student guard Miguel Ayesa added 13 and 11 points, respectively.
 
Game Information
Score: USC Upstate 85; North Carolina Central 82
Records: USC Upstate (4-5; 0-0 Big South); North Carolina Central (4-5; 0-0 MEAC)
Location: McDougald-McLendon Arena | Durham, N.C.
 
How It Happened
First Half

• Jumping out to an early advantage, North Carolina Central forced three Upstate turnovers, turning the miscues into four points for an early 4-0 lead. The Spartans broke the scoring as Nick Alves hit a driving layup before the Eagles hit a pair of free throws to push the lead back to four.
• Forcing a few Eagle turnovers, Upstate took the lead for the first time with its second-largest scoring stretch of the first half with six straight points capped by a fastbreak slam from Justin Bailey. North Carolina Central answered with an 8-3 run heading towards the under-12 media timeout before Miguel Ayesa knocked down a three to tie the game at 14 at the stoppage.
• Following Ayesa's second three of the afternoon, the two sides went back and forth with one another as neither team could pull away—Upstate held the largest lead in the five minutes at four points. Alves and Bailey turned the tide for the Spartans, creating a 7-2 scoring stretch to deliver Upstate a lead it wouldn't relinquish for the remainder of the half.
• With North Carolina Central whittling the Spartan advantage to one with three minutes to play in the half, the Spartans used a 7-0 run to build its lead back. The Spartans closed the half on a 10-4 stretch to hold a seven-point lead into the locker room.

 
Second Half

• Out of the locker room, North Carolina Central cut into the Spartans' lead to three, outscoring the Spartans 6-2 out of the break. Floyd Rideau Jr. answered the Eagles, hitting three three-pointers over a minute-and-a-half stretch—to North Carolina Central's three points—to push the lead to nine.
• Moving towards the under-12 media stoppage, the Spartans and Eagles remained in lockstep with one another, not allowing Upstate's lead to grow. However, Upstate doubled up North Carolina Central in the stretch, keeping the advantage at five.
• Growing the lead to double-digits for the first time, Upstate fashioned its best scoring run of the game, stringing together 10 straight points and pushing the lead to 15—the largest of the game. Eduardo Placer paced the run, scoring all five of his points, doing so with a three and a fastbreak layup.
• North Carolina Central countered the long Upstate run with its longest scoring run of the game, scoring 13 consecutive markers to pull within two with six minutes to play. The Eagles outscored the Spartans 22 to six from the start of the scoring run until the under-four media timeout, taking the lead for the final time with 3:18 to play.
• With neither side scoring next until the 2:02 mark to play, Ahmir Langlais started the scoring in the game's final two minutes with a dunk. After the Eagles tied the with 19 seconds to play, Trae Broadnax found Langlais driving towards the basket as Langlais laid it in off the glass with 1.8 seconds remaining to give Upstate the win.

 
Notable

• USC Upstate's win Saturday snapped a 25-game home winning streak in non-conference play for North Carolina Central with the Eagles' latest home loss coming six years to the day of its last, an 86-77 loss against Southeast Missouri on Dec. 2, 2017. The Spartans' victory also snapped a six-game home winning streak for the Eagles.
• Tying for the team lead with 14 points versus North Carolina Central, Floyd Rideau Jr. has scored in double-figures in back-to-back games for the first time during his USC Upstate career. Over his past two games, he's shot 11-of-16 from the floor and 9-of-12 from three.
• Led by four threes from Rideau Jr., Upstate knocked down 12 total threes Saturday, hitting 10 or more treys in a game in back-to-back games for the second time this season. The Spartans hit 10 or more threes four times last season and last hit double-digit three-pointers in consecutive games against Division I competition during the 2021-22 season (vs. Winthrop and vs. N.C. A&T on Jan. 26 and Jan. 29, 2022).
• The Spartans' 12 threes against the Eagles improved the program's streak of games with at least one made three-pointer to 881 games, a streak dating back to the 1994-95 season. The streak includes each of the program's 514 games played at the NCAA Division I level (2007-pres.).
• Committing 20 turnovers Saturday, Upstate lost the turnover margin for the first time this season (-5), snapping a streak of 17 straight games without the Spartans trailing in the turnover margin. The last time the Spartans trailed in turnover margin was Feb. 4, 2023, against UNC Asheville.

 
Up Next for the Spartans
Following the team's game Saturday, Upstate returns to the G.B. Hodge Center for the first of two consecutive home games as the non-conference slate winds down. The first of the two home contests see Kennesaw State head to the Hodge for the back half of a men's and women's basketball doubleheader on Dec. 9 with tip-off set for 7 p.m. ET.
 
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