SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Saturday marked winter commencement exercises and the last home basketball game prior to Christmas for USC Upstate, as the Spartans hosted in-state foe South Carolina State.
A strong response in the second half helped the Spartans rally to claim an 89-84 overtime victory over the Bulldogs at Eddie & Ann Payne Arena. The win gives Upstate a 4-0 mark in the series between the two sides dating back to 2018.
The first stanza was all Bulldogs for the most part, as the visitors from Orangeburg, South Carolina held the lead for 14:52 of the game’s opening 20 minutes, compared to 3:52 for Upstate. SC State did a solid job defensively, as they held Upstate’s Jordan Gainey to six points in the frame.
After the intermission, the Spartans began chipping away and eventually found a groove on the offensive end of the floor. Trailing by nine with 10:44 to play in regulation, Upstate outscored SC State 11-4 over a seven-minute, 24-second span as the two sides hit the final media timeout of the second half.
“We were lucky,” Upstate head coach Dave Dickerson stated. “Our guys were good enough to get to overtime. The last 10 minutes of the second half, I thought we played our best basketball and gave ourselves a chance. We had some weird lineups out there. We had Jordyn Surratt at the five and played small like they did. We switched everything and that helped us to stay in front of them and rebound better. We had to make adjustments because they were playing great basketball.”
Gainey found Floyd Rideau, Jr. on the perimeter for a 3-pointer, followed by a Trae Broadnax layup that cut the deficit down to four. Moments later, an Ahmir Langlais basket off an assist from Mysta Goodloe trimmed the Bulldogs’ lead down to two with 3:50 remaining.
A pair of Goodloe free throws and a Gainey fastbreak layup gave Upstate a 68-66 lead with 2:29 left, but a long two from Davion Edwards with 11 seconds to play sent the game to an extra frame, with the two sides tied at 71.
“It was great getting Mysta back,” Gainey remarked. “His presence, both offensively and defensively, is strong. He’s a glue guy on the defensive end. Everyone’s so tight-knit and connected when he’s out there.”
The two teams tallied six lead changes over the first three minutes of overtime, with the last one occurring on a go-ahead three from Gainey, which staked the Spartans to a 79-77 advantage with 2:02 remaining. The sophomore guard drained another triple with 44 seconds left to give Upstate a two-possession lead.
The Bulldogs continued to fight and managed to trim the deficit to four, but Goodloe knocked down two more shots from the charity stripe to secure the victory and send the near-capacity crowd home happy. The win on Saturday marks the third victory in as many games for Upstate over the last 10 days.
“It was amazing,” said Goodloe about returning to the court. “Even though I was sidelined, I was staying in tune with everything so when I got back on the court, I wouldn’t miss a beat and just fit right in. When Coach called my name, I was ready and ecstatic. The energy from the home crowd was amazing and we appreciate everyone who came out.”
Gainey and Goodloe teamed up to score 35 of Upstate’s 57 points, spanning the second half and overtime periods. Gainey, the Big South Player of the Week, finished with a career and game-high 28 points, which is his third game in a row scoring at least 20 points and second time in as many contests setting a new career-high in scoring.
In his season debut, Goodloe played 24 minutes and finished with a career-high 20 points in his 2022-23 season debut. Three more Spartans in the form of Langlais (13 points), Khydarius Smith (12), and Broadnax (10) all tallied double-figure scoring totals.
Upstate (5-4 overall) will return to action on Tuesday at 8:30 p.m. in a road contest against Florida State.
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