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HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. – Fred Miller scored seven points late in the second half as South Carolina Upstate rallied for a 60-54 victory over Northern Kentucky on Saturday night in The Bank of Kentucky Center.
NKU (3-8 overall, 1-2 Atlantic Sun Conference) owned a 50-47 lead after
Eshaunte Jones drained a 3-pointer with 5:55 remaining in the game. Miller countered by hitting a short jumper to pull USC Upstate within a point, but
Ernest Watson responded with a basket to push NKU's lead to 52-49.
Miller then struck again for USC Upstate, burying a 3-pointer with 4:13 left to tie the game at 52-all. His layup at the 3:23 mark gave the Spartans the lead for good at 54-52, and USC Upstate held on to spoil NKU's home opener before a crowd of 2,788.
The loss also snapped a 30-year winning streak in home openers for NKU, dating back to a 68-64 setback to Hanover on Nov. 27, 1981.
USC Upstate built a 33-24 lead at intermission and quickly extended that advantage to 13 points early in the second half. NKU head coach
Dave Bezold had one thought in mind after watching his team fall behind.
“All I was thinking was let's get close and get these fans involved and get them something to cheer for,” Bezold said.
“You just want the fans to see how they developed. In the first half you just went, 'Come on guys, come on.' I heard someone in the crowd say, 'Wake up, Norse,' and they were right.”
Jones sparked the second-half comeback by scoring 14 of his game-high 18 points, thanks to making 4-of-5 3-pointers. His final trey gave NKU a 50-47 lead.
USC Upstate (7-7, 1-0), which is picked to finish second in the Atlantic Sun, then outscored NKU 7-2, to take a 54-52 lead with 3:32 left. All seven points came from Miller, who entered the game averaging 5.4 points per game but finished with a team-high 11. His output helped make up for last year's A-Sun Player of the Year Torrey Craig being held to just six points after entering the game averaging 18.2 points per game.
A layup by USC Upstate's Ricardo Glenn pushed the lead to 56-52, but Watson answered with a baseline jumped to cut the deficit to 56-54 with 1:39 left.
After NKU got a stop, Bezold wanted to run a set for Jones, who is the team's leading scorer at 13.0 points per game, but the ball went to Watson on the baseline instead and he came up just short on a jumper that would have tied the score with 37 seconds remaining. USC Upstate made all six free throws down the stretch to seal it as part of a 19-for-19 performance at the foul line in the game.
“I wanted Bear to walk up a little bit and get flared,” said Bezold. “That's a shot (Watson) makes a ton. He makes that 6, 7, 8 out of 10 times and he made that same shot just a possession before. We had a great look at it. He has to take that. I was hoping Bear had that ball in his hands just because of the streak he was on he might let just one go and knock it cold, because he's done that.”
Jones made a game-winning 3-pointer to beat West Virginia in an exhibition game last season.
“That was a great shot for Stretch,” Jones said. “I told him in the locker room he's going to make that 9 out of 10 times. That was a great percentage shot. I'll take that any day.”
It was the sluggish first half, though, that Bezold said cost his team the game.
NKU held a 15-10 lead with 12:04 left in the first half, but then proceeded to go cold from the field as it got nothing offensively inside with Watson and Jackson out and was forced to settle for contested 3-point attempts. The Norse went scoreless for almost the next six minutes and USC Upstate went on a 13-0 run in that span to take a 23-15 lead with 6:39 left in the half. USC Upstate extended the lead to as much as 33-21 before settling for a 33-24 halftime lead.
NKU made just 9 of 22 shots from the field in the first half, including 5 of 15 3-point attempts. It took just seven two-point attempts in the first half and made four. It also turned the ball over nine times in the half (and just twice in the second half), and allowed eight offensive rebounds that led to USC Upstate outscoring the Norse on second-chance points in the half, 10-3.
“I really thought this game was lost probably in the first half when we got ourselves in some careless foul trouble,” Bezold said. “Then with some substitutions and things we got in a rut there offensively. We just seemed to be running in mud and we weren't able to get a lot at the basket with Chad (Jackson) sitting on the bench.
“Defensively we weren't tough enough. We weren't getting the 50-50 balls and we weren't anticipating and we allowed them to get some points I thought we could keep them from getting. You can't do that and win games against seasoned teams.”
NKU plays host to East Tennessee State at 7:30 p.m. Monday. It will mark the first-ever meeting between the Norse and Buccaneers, who are 2-12 overall, 0-1 in the A-Sun.
(Special thanks to The Enquirer's Richard Skinner for assisting with this recap)
