National Basketball Association
South Carolina Upstate 53, Mississippi St. 51
When: 4:00 PM ET, Saturday, December 20, 2014
Where: Mississippi Coliseum, Jackson, Mississippi
Officials:
# John Hampton, # Tony Henderson, # Mike Nance
Attendance:
1102
By SportsDirect Inc.
USC Upstate 53, Mississippi State 51: Damian Goodwin scored 14 points and Ty Greene scored the winning basket in the game's final seconds as the visiting Spartans knocked off the Bulldogs.
Fred Miller added 10 points for USC Upstate (9-4), which snapped a two-game losing streak. Michael Buchanan contributed nine points and a team-best five rebounds for the Spartans, who won despite an inability to strike from beyond the arc, shooting 4-of-25 from 3-point range.
Roquez Johnson's 15 points led the offense for Mississippi State (5-5), which has lost five in a row to neutralize its five-game win streak to start the season. Johnson added a game-high nine rebounds and Fallou Ndoye scored 11 points for the Bulldogs, who shot a mere 38.6 percent.
Neither team shot well in the first half, with both sides under 35 percent from the field, but USC Upstate opened up a 17-11 lead on a jumper from Greene with just over 7:30 left until halftime. Trivante Bloodman sank a pair of free throws and added a bucket to pull Mississippi State back to within 17-15 before the Spartans used three free throws from Buchanan as part of five straight points to take a 22-15 edge into the locker room.
In a back-and-forth second half, the teams traded blows in the form of several lead changes until a Jacob Schulte bucket pushed USC Upstate in front 51-49 with 36 seconds left. Ndoye jammed home the rebound of an attempt from Johnson to even the score at 51-51 with 17 ticks on the clock and after Greene's basket with six seconds to go put the Spartans back in front, I.J. Ready's 3-pointer wouldn't go as the Bulldogs fell in the waning moments.
GAME NOTEBOOK: USC Upstate won for just the second time ever against an SEC opponent, improving to 2-9 in program history. ... Mississippi State shot 1-of-15 from 3-point range. ...The Bulldogs got next-to-nothing from their bench, with four players combining for four points on 2-of-12 shooting.
Top Game Performances
| South Carolina Upstate |
|
Mississippi St. |
|
Damien Goodwin 14 |
Scoring |
Roquez Johnson 15 |
|
Mario Blessing 2 |
Assists |
Trivante Bloodman 2 |
|
Michael Buchanan 5 |
Rebounds |
Roquez Johnson 9 |
|
Michael Buchanan 3 |
Free Throws Made |
Roquez Johnson 9 |
|
Ty Greene 3 |
Steals |
Roquez Johnson 2 |
|
Fred Miller 2 |
Blocks |
Trivante Bloodman 1 |
Team Stats Summary
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