SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The USC Upstate Spartans continued their trek through the first circuit of Big South play on Wednesday evening, as they played host to the Campbell Camels.
It was a tale of two halves for the host Spartans, as they shot over 50 percent in the first half, but struggled to find the bottom of the net in the second. In the end, Upstate fell to Campbell by a 78-63 tally, which marks the Spartans’ first home loss on the 2022-23 campaign.
It was quite the back-and-forth battle in the first stanza for both teams, as neither side held a double-digit lead. Each side knocked down a pair of 3-pointers just five minutes into the game, where Upstate held a 12-10 advantage.
Off a Justin Bailey steal, Mysta Goodloe looked upcourt and threaded the needle on a bounce pass to Jordyn Surrat for a basket, which made it a five-point Spartan lead. Later in the frame, a pair of threes – one apiece from Nick Alves and Jordan Gainey – and a Khydarius Smith layup helped Upstate build a 39-30 advantage before Campbell’s Jasin Sinani drained a three to make it a six-point game at the intermission.
In total, the Spartans made 16 of 31 tries from the floor in the half.
“I thought in the first half that we played with some energy and pace,” said Upstate head coach Dave Dickerson. “I felt our pace was really bad tonight, but it had a lot to do with Campbell and their pace. Normally when you play basketball, the team that has the best pace and controls the pace wins. Hats off to Kevin (McGeehan), his team, and staff. They were really good tonight.”
The efforts of Gediminas Mokseckas (14 points in the half, which featured a trio of triples) helped the Camels stay within striking distance of the Spartans. Sinani’s three pointer sparked a 12-0 run for Campbell that stretched over the first four-plus minutes of the second half and put the Camels ahead, 40-39, with 15:43 to play. On the ensuing possession, a baseline runner from Gainey made it a one-point Upstate lead.
Gainey drained a pair of 3-pointers in just over a minute of game action to give Upstate a 47-44 lead with 13:26 left, only to see a Juan Reyna jumper kickstart an 11-0 run for Campbell, which translated to a 55-47 Camel lead with 8:40 left.
“(Gediminas) played very well tonight,” Campbell head coach Kevin McGeehan remarked. “He normally doesn’t shoot like that, so those were huge contributions. He might have some more defenders putting a hand in his face after tonight’s shooting, but I thought he played really well overall. We came in with a specific game plan, but had to adjust a couple different times due to personnel. Our guys did a nice job there and on the glass, too.”
The Spartans ran into some shooting woes, as they could only tally four makes in their first 20 attempts from the deck at one point in the second half. Upstate pulled within five points of Campbell with just under four minutes left on a Broadnax layup, but the Camels used a quick 9-3 burst – capped by a Reyna triple – to make it a 73-61 game with 2:12 left.
For the game, Upstate made 26 of 63 attempts from the field, including a 10-for-32 mark in the second half. Campbell made 22 of its 50 shots, which featured a 13-for-25 clip in the second stanza.
The Camels outrebounded the Spartans, 40-28, and made 26 out of 36 free throws. Upstate made two of its three attempts from the charity stripe.
“We’re a team,” Dickerson stated. “We win as a team and lose as a team. It was one of those things where they had a few guys that played well, including (Reyna) that came off the bench. Our guys will bounce back – it’s just one game for us. I hate it because we were playing so well at home and our fans have been so great this year.”
“This is January, February, March conference basketball. It’s going to be a tough game (on Saturday), but I’m 100 percent sure that my guys will bounce back and be ready to play. We will definitely play better than we did tonight."
Jordan Gainey scored a game-high 22 points for Upstate, followed by Trae Broadnax with 11. Mokseckas paced the Camels with a career and team-high 20 points, along with 14 points apiece from Ricky Clemons and Juan Reyna.
Next up for the Spartans (8-8, 3-2 Big South) is a road trip to Farmville, Virginia for a Saturday night showdown with league leader Longwood (12-5, 4-0) at 7 p.m. Campbell (7-10, 2-3) will host Winthrop on Saturday at 2 p.m.
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