Antoine’s last-second three steals win for Radford at Upstate

Ahmir Langlais looks for a shot as USC Upstate battled Radford Saturday. (Photo by Ryan Frye/USC Upstate Athletics)

By Justin Mathis (@J_Math23)

SPARTANBURG, S.C. – In the first meeting between Radford and USC Upstate on January 4, the Spartans walked away from the Dedmon Center with a five-point victory. Appropriately, the return match between the two sides on Saturday afternoon came down to the wire.

 

Despite a choppy flow to the game, the Highlanders and host Spartans collided in a barnburner at the Hodge Center. A 25-foot 3-pointer from Bryan Antoine with 2.5 seconds to play lifted Radford to a 55-52 win over USC Upstate, the seventh victory in a row for the Highlanders.

 

“The funny thing is I didn’t really see the clock,” Antoine admitted. “We started our play with 12 seconds left and I knew that as soon as I caught the ball, there was close to five seconds (left), so I had to shoot it. As soon as I shot it, I checked again and there was 2.5 seconds left. I’m just happy I made it.  I don’t really come into games thinking about shooting, it just happens.”

 

Prior to that final possession, Upstate’s Nick Alves corralled an offensive rebound and putback that cut Radford’s lead down to 52-50 with 1:33 to play. After forcing a missed 3-pointer, Upstate called its last timeout. 

 

Off the inbounds pass, the Spartans worked quick as Mysta Goodloe found Ahmir Langlais on a lob play, where the latter finished strong at the rim and brought the game to a 52-all deadlock with 33 seconds to play. 

 

“I’m proud of my team,” said Upstate head coach Dave Dickerson. “We fought, played hard, and played connected. We didn’t give in. We just needed the last possession. Ahmir scores the ball for us and scores the ball easily sometimes. He’s working on different moves in the post because they’re taking his right shoulder away. He did a good job tonight of just staying with it.”

 

It was a struggle for either team to establish much of a rhythm in the contest, particularly in the first half as 23 combined fouls were called. There wasn’t much improvement in that category during the second half, as 21 more fouls were whistled, which featured a flurry of nine over the first four minutes and 28 seconds of the stanza alone.

 

For the Highlanders, it was roughly a 36-plus hour span as they rallied in a back-and-forth affair to pick up a 63-59 victory over Longwood this past Thursday evening. Considering the circumstances following a big rivalry game in conference play, Radford played some outstanding defense in the opening frame.

 

Following a 7-0 Upstate burst that included five straight points from Justin Bailey, Radford clamped down and outscored the Spartans 19-5 over a near-nine-minute stretch that lasted until the 3:49 mark and resulted in a 10-point cushion for the visitors, 27-17, at the intermission.

 

“I thought that we started playing too soft offensively because of the whistles,” Radford head coach Darris Nichols stated. “I thought it was on both sides. We were getting to the rim and missing too many rim shots. They had us playing kind of timid offensively. I wanted our guys to back up and show their hands defensively.”

 

Upstate found its footing on the offensive end in the second half, as they ripped off an 18-7 burst over the first nine-plus minutes of the frame to take a 35-34 lead with 11:45 remaining. During the run, Goodloe drained a pair of triples while Jordan Gainey added a mid-range jumper and layup in that span.

 

“The first half was just tough,” Dickerson said. “There was a lid on the basket. I thought we defended hard, but just couldn’t make a shot. Then in the second half, we gave ourselves a chance to win (from) being down by 10 against a very good defensive team.”

 

Both teams ended up with only two players apiece reaching double figures. Antoine led the Highlanders with a game-high 21 points, followed by Justin Archer with 11. Goodloe finished with a team-high 12 points for the Spartans, along with 10 points from Gainey and eight from Langlais.

 

On Wednesday, Radford travels down to Clinton, South Carolina for a clash with Presbyterian College, while Upstate will make the trek up to Buies Creek, North Carolina to face Campbell. Both games are slated for 7 p.m. start times.