Winthrop outlasts Upstate in Thursday Big South battle

 

Winthrop center Logan Duncomb booked a 24-point, 16-board double-double in a Thursday win over Upstate.  (Photo:  Winthrop Athletics)

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ROCK HILL, S.C. – The Big South has discovered in 2025-26 that there isn’t much Logan Duncomb can’t do.

The likely Player of the Year in the league, Duncomb has logged double-figure games with double-doubles. He is nearing the Winthrop season records for free throws attempted and made.

Thursday night, he proved himself capable of being a decent analyst, as well.

“It was physical, but you’ve got to expect that,” Duncomb said. “I thought we knew coming in that they were going to be physical, and I thought we didn’t respond the best way. I’m not sure what we did wrong. I’d have to go watch the film and watch the game back, but it just wasn’t clicking.”

“That was the wrong response for today, before High Point (Saturday afternoon).”

Following a 71-50 Winthrop decision in Spartanburg earlier this season in which the Eagles controlled the game almost the entire way, USC Upstate came to the Winthrop Coliseum Thursday and – even on a night when the Spartans did not shoot their best or play their best – almost escaped with a win in a hostile environment.

When the horn sounded, Winthrop escaped with a 68-64 win.

You know what happened – now, let’s go…Inside the Numbers!

• Duncomb recorded his 11th double-double on the season, scoring 24 points and hauling in 16 boards. The Cincinnati native was the focus of much of the post-game review – on both sides. Duncomb himself also offered a bit more analysis.

“I love when our guys do well. I love when our guys get going,” Duncomb said. “I just wish we had gotten a little more energy from the start. I mean, we got the (win), so we figured it out, but it was like we were trying to lose it there at the end.”

“Logan got us. He got us down low a little bit,” Upstate coach Marty Richter said. “He got us on the offensive rebounds. I think he had 12 of their 21 second-chance points. All of his offensive rebounds turned into points for himself. He got 12 on post-ups on (us). You can live with that.”

“He’s a really good player. I mean, he hit 24 and 16 – he’s a really good player. A lot of people are undisciplined, and we had some undisciplined plays where we swiped him down. If you stay vertical and make him go over you on those, your chances (of stopping him) go up.”

• Upstate limited Winthrop from the perimeter Thursday, holding the Eagles to just 7-for-23 (30.4 percent) from beyond the arc. The Eagles got four of those triples from Kody Clouet. Richter was mostly happy with how the Spartans ran the Eagle shooters off their lines.

“I thought we got good sticks,” Richter said. “We missed Clouet four times in the first half, which hurt us. (There were) four times where we stuck short. We had a short stick in the first half --  four of them on him, and we had one in the second half on (guard Daylen) Berry. (Forward) Breylin (Garcia) had a short stick on him, and they punished us with those five. Five of those threes were just on short sticks, and you've got to get to the body on the sticks.”

• Upstate struggled from the field (34.5 percent) and deep (22.6 percent) Thursday. Richter was upset with the result but was not at all unhappy with the shot selection from his Spartans.

“I thought they were really good shots,” Richter said of his team’s shooting. “The way they play defense, they’re hard raking in the nail. Now you’re kicking it to open guys.”

“If (guard) Karmani Gregory goes 3-of-11 and gets 11 threes like that up again, he’s going to go 6-of-11 the next time you play him. Then, (guard) Carmelo (Adkins) goes 3-of-13. If he gets those 13 looks again, he’s going to make them. There was a stretch where we were down 55-50 and Karmani had one that just missed. Great look. Then the next possession, it was Carmelo – or vice versa. We missed back-to-back. That’s part of it. I liked our looks tonight.”

• Richter saw a significant difference from the first game in Spartanburg in terms of the effort he got from his team.

“The difference is we competed,” Richter said. "In Spartanburg, we only competed for 20 minutes. Tonight we played hard enough. We didn't play smart enough all game long, but we played hard enough. It's an old saying -- you've got to play together, (4:01) you've got to play smart, and you've got to play hard. We played together. We played hard, but we didn't play smart for the 40. (4:07) We played smart for about probably 25 minutes of the game, and (the other) 15 of them -- against a good team like them, they beat you.”

The Spartans forced 14 Winthrop miscues, just one below its season-high. The Spartans were largely unable to make the Eagles pay for those turnovers, however, turning them into just nine points.

“I thought we did some really good things tonight,” Richter said. “I thought we did some bad things. That’s college basketball – you’re going to make mistakes. I thought what they did better than us tonight is when it came to – that ball was right there and you and I had to make a decision. Who’s going to get their nose dirty first? They got their nose dirty first.”

“I (also) think there were six or eight points in free throw blockouts at the beginning of the (second) half where we didn’t finish the play and they got buckets. Those two things changed the outcome of the game.”

• The Spartans had a late look to tie the game. Upstate trailed by three with 16 seconds remaining, then forced a turnover on an errant Winthrop pass. Adkins worked out of traffic and found Gregory with a pass, setting him up for a wide-open three directly in front of the Upstate bench. The try harmlessly spun away, though, allowing Winthrop to seal the game with a free throw.

“I thought it was in. It hit the back of the rim,” Richter said. “If you take 100 of those shots and it hit like that, you're like, oh, that's going in. We just did our normal press that we do, and we got a steal. They were looking to think we were going to foul right away. They were playing for the foul, and we were playing for the trap first and then get a foul, and they threw it to us.”

“That's part of it. Sometimes you make them, sometimes you miss them. That's the difference between winning and losing.”

• Richter was optimistic about what his team could do if it stays consistent.

“I was really encouraged by -- if they play as hard Saturday as they did today, we're going to have a chance to win. If you play that hard again on Thursday, you're going to have a chance to win. We could get to six wins in conference, which is a really good feat for our program where we're at right now. Then you may be the seven (seed), you may be the six, you may be the five. You know how this league is. Everybody's kind of bunched up.”

“We closed the game out on a 12-3 run. We're getting better because when we're in these games -- we were 5-2 coming into today. The last one against Longwood, we didn't close it. We just missed free throws. If we make our free throws, we're 6-1 in those one-possession games. I think we have gotten better. This is how we’ve played most of the year right here. If we can keep playing this way, we'll keep making teams have to play really well to beat us. If we do that, then anything's possible.”

• Winthrop coach Mark Prosser is now tied with former Asheville coach Eddie Biedenbach, Liberty coach Ritchie McKay, former Asheville and current Middle Tennessee coach Nick McDevitt, former Longwood coach Griff Aldrich, and Asheville coach Mike Morrell for sixth all-time with three 20-win seasons. Former Winthrop coach Gregg Marshall has the most 20-win seasons for a Big South coach with six.

“In every one of those games, I didn’t make any baskets. I got no stops. I got no rebounds,” Prosser said. “We’ve had a string of really good players and really good people. They take a lot of pride in representing the institution and representing this area. That stuff is great – and I love it – but I’ve had very little to do with any of that stuff.”

Duncomb’s 24 led Winthrop and all scorers. The senior center hit 8-of-14 from the deck and 8-of-10 from the line to go along with his 16 boards. Clouet added 17 on 5-of-13 from the field (4-of-10 from distance) and 3-of-4 from the line. The Eagles shot 42.6 percent (23-of-54) from the field, 30.4 percent (7-of-23) from distance, and 60 percent (15-of-25) from the line.

Adkins booked 21 for the Spartans, hitting 7-of-19 from the field and 3-of-13 from the perimeter to go along with four free throws in four tries. Gregory added 18 on 5-of-18 shooting (3-for-11 from deep) and 5-for-6 from the line. The Spartans shot 34.5 percent (20-for-58) from the field, with 22.6 percent (7-of-31) falling from three. Upstate hit 17-of-22 free throws (77.3 percent).

Next up:  Winthrop hits the road Saturday to take on conference co-leader High Point at the Qubein Center. If Winthrop wins the game, they will take the season sweep of the Panthers and have a magic number of one to win the league. If High Point wins, Winthrop needs to win out, have a High Point loss to Presbyterian, and have Presbyterian finish ahead of Longwood in the conference standings. Tip time from High Point is set for 4:00 (Eastern), with coverage over ESPN+.

Upstate returns to the Hodge Center in Spartanburg, S.C., to take on Presbyterian Saturday afternoon. Game time between the Spartans and Blue Hose is set for 4:30, with ESPN+ handling the streaming.

Hustle Stats:

Points off turnovers:  Winthrop 14, Upstate 9

Points in the paint:  Winthrop 32, Upstate 24

Second-chance points:  Winthrop 21, Upstate 10

Fast-break points:  Upstate 5, Winthrop 1

Bench points:  Winthrop 9, Upstate 8

WINTHROP 68, UPSTATE 64

UPSTATE (11-17, 3-10 BIG SOUTH)

Martinez 1-2 4-4 6, Gregory 5-18 5-6 18, Skinner 1-5 0-0 2, Adkins 7-19 4-4 21, Bendinger 3-10 2-4 9, Collier 0-0 0-0 0, Garcia 3-4 1-2 7, Jones 0-0 0-0 0, Smith 0-0 1-2 1. Totals 20-58 17-22 64.

WINTHROP (20-8, 12-1)

Kamarad 2-5 1-2 5, Duncomb 8-14 8-10 24, Wilson 2-5 0-0 5, Rozier 3-6 2-5 8, Clouet 5-13 3-4 17, Berry 1-5 1-3 4, Hendawy 1-2 0-1 3, Nnamoko 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 23-54 15-25 68.

Halftime:  Winthrop 30-27. 3-Point goals:  Winthrop 7-23 (Kamarad 0-2, Wilson 1-2, Rozier 0-3, Clouet 4-10, Berry 1-3, Hendawy 1-2, Meo 0-1), Upstate 7-31 (Gregory 3-11, Skinner 0-4, Adkins 3-13, Bendinger 1-3). Fouled out:  NA.  Rebounds:  Winthrop 45 (Duncomb 13), Upstate 33 (Garcia 7). Total fouls:  Upstate 23, Winthrop 16. Technicals:  NA.