SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Looking to keep up the momentum the team's gained since seeing the calendar flip to February, USC Upstate men's basketball put together a strong first half before UNC Asheville momentum shifted in favor of its opponent in the second half as UNC Asheville fought back to earn a 77-64 victory Saturday at the G.B. Hodge Center.
 
In what proved a tale of two halves, Upstate opened the game shooting 53.6 percent (15-of-28) from the field, including a mark of 42.9 percent (6-of-14) from three to stake a four-point lead at the break. In the second stanza, the Spartans finished 30.8 percent (6-of-26) and 15.4 percent (2-of-13) from the floor and beyond the arc, respectively, though they concluded the evening shooting 42.6 percent (23-of-54) from the field for the team's sixth straight outing posting a field goal percentage greater than 40.0 percent.
 
Tying a career-high with three triples, redshirt sophomore guard Jalen Breazeale poured in a season-high 13 points to lead Upstate offensively while passing out a team-high four assists. He was joined in double figures by graduate student guard Nick Alves and sophomore guard Justin Bailey who dropped 11 points apiece.
 
Game Information
Score: UNC Asheville 77; USC Upstate 64
Records: USC Upstate (8-16; 3-8 Big South); UNC Asheville (17-9; 9-2 Big South)
Location: G.B. Hodge Center | Spartanburg, S.C.
 
How It Happened
First Half

• Holding UNC Asheville empty on its first possession, USC Upstate came down the floor and opened the game's scoring as Justin Bailey knocked down a jumper for the afternoon's first bucket. The Bulldogs answered with back-to-back baskets to take the lead for the first time before Ahmir Langlais knotted things with a layup. Asheville stretched its scoring out to a 7-2 run, staking its largest lead of the half at three points with 15:10 to play.
• Ending the 7-2 Bulldog scoring stretch, Bailey and Jalen Breazeale drained a pair of treys to push Upstate back to the lead. Breazeale's three started a run of Asheville tying the game on three occasions before Upstate took back the lead. The Spartans off the third tie saw two consecutive threes from Floyd Rideau Jr. and Breazeale hit threes to build a lead at the under-12 media timeout.
• Out of the media stoppage, Upstate worked to grow its lead to the largest of the game, stretching to eight points behind a Miguel Ayesa trey. Asheville, however, countered the Spartans, answering with an 8-2 scoring stretch following the three to pull within two before extending the run to 11-4 and trimming the lead to one with 5:10 remaining in the half.
• Growing the lead further in favor of the Spartans, Trae Broadnax sank the Spartans' sixth three of the half to push the lead back to four. Upstate held the Bulldogs without a field goal for over four minutes and closed the half with a four-point advantage thanks to a hook shot from Langlais.

 
Second Half

• Opening the new half, Breazeale pushed the Spartans' lead back to seven as he hit his third three of the game while he also hit a pair of free throws a few minutes into the half to keep the lead in the six-point range. Spanning the halftime break, Upstate held Asheville without a field goal for another four-minute stretch with the Bulldogs' only points coming from the line.
• Snapping the four-minute stretch without a field goal, Asheville broke out in a big way, stringing together four consecutive field goals to take the lead for the final time with a 9-0 scoring run, culminating the run at the under-16 media timeout. Battling against the team's first deficit since 15:10 in the first half, Upstate cut the lead to two as Nick Alves hit a turn-around jumper to end a near six-minute field goal-less stretch.
• Extending its lead to double-digits for the first time, Asheville responded to Upstate's latest field goal with an 8-0 scoring run. The run for the Bulldogs grew to an 11-2 highwater mark, growing the advantage to 11 with 9:11 to play with the lone points in the run for the Spartans coming from a jumper from Rideau Jr.
• Following Rideau Jr.'s basket, Asheville built upon its lead as it held Upstate without a field goal for nearly five minutes, pushing the lead to as many as 15 points before an Alves' layup snapped the slump for the Spartans. With the lead as large as 16 points, Upstate battled back to cut the deficit in half with an 8-0 scoring run into the final two minutes of the game, but the Bulldogs put things away at the line as the clock diminished.

 
Notable

• Passing out a team-high four assists against UNC Asheville, Jalen Breazeale posted his third straight game with four or more assists—the longest streak of his career as he's passed out 15 helpers during the stretch. He also finished the night with a season-best 13 points, his third double-figure scoring game of the year, as he tied a career-high with three made three-pointers.
• Committing 20 turnovers Saturday, Upstate tied its season-high for turnovers in a game, equaling its total from the team's victory at North Carolina Central on Dec. 2, 2023. The Spartans also dropped the turnover margin versus UNC Asheville, dropping the turnover margin for just the fourth time through 24 games this season.
• Hitting eight threes Saturday versus UNC Asheville, Upstate improved its streak of consecutive games with at least one made-three pointer to 896 games, a streak dating back to the 1994-95 season. The stretch also includes each of the Spartans' 527 games at the NCAA Division I level (2007-pres.).

 
Up Next for the Spartans
Continuing a stretch against teams slotted atop the Big South standings, Upstate heads back on the road to face the team leading the conference. The Spartans meet High Point next Wednesday at the Qubein Center—the site of the 2024 Big South Men's Basketball Championship—with tip-off slated for 7 p.m. ET.
 
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