12/4/18: USC Upstate (2-2) vs Incarnate Word (1-3)
We get another chance to stay above .500 when the prestige 10 Cardinals come to town, looking to turn their season around as well. Coming off an NIT appearance (although a 12-20 record) last season, the Cardinals dropped 3 straight to start the season before a surprising win over a Fresno State team that is badly under-performing with a 0-5 record. The Cardinals have a balanced team with no one player scoring over 10 points a game, but definitely have more depth than we do, with no walk-ons in their regular rotation.
We build up a small lead early behind Cameron and Wade inside, and manage to push it out to 27-14 with 9:57 remaining in the half, as the Cardinals just have no answer to our scoring around the basket. We have a bit of a dry spell as the Cardinals deny our bigs and Aguilar in particular can't buy a basket, but every time the gap is closed we find points and enter the break up 35-26. Wade has 10 points and Giley 7, while Aguilar is just 1-9 from the floor. It's an even spread for the Cardinals, as expected.
Aguilar gets us our first basket of the 2nd half (...and I check to make sure I didn't accidentally set him as a key player...), but it's the turnovers from the Cardinals that is helping the most at keeping our lead out in double digits. We begin to creep out near a 20 point lead, although the Cardinals are hitting the offensive glass and giving themselves half a shot at this by trimming the lead back down to 15 with 8 minutes remaining. Up 18 with 3 minutes left I yank the starters, and we get the 83-60 win.
Great response to the disappointing loss a few days ago, albeit against a lesser opponent. Wade was solid as usual with 20 points and 5 boards, along with Gilley (16 points) and Aguilar who hit a few in the second half (14 points). I was most impressed by Arthur Davis though, who was still not 100% after his minor injury last week but managed a 5-7-4 line off the bench.
Code:
USC Upstate 83, Incarnate Word 60
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Incarnate Word (1-4, 0-0):
Player Pos Min Fgm-a Ftm-a Off Reb Ast PF Pts
Ronald Lee C 20 2-8 2-2 2 8 0 4 7
Andrew Young PF 30 1-4 0-0 5 8 0 1 2
Enoch Goodman SF 28 4-5 2-2 0 1 2 4 12
David Massey SG 31 6-13 3-5 0 2 1 4 17
O. Vaillancourt PG 25 2-7 2-2 1 2 3 0 7
Harold Brill PG 17 1-4 0-0 1 2 5 3 2
John Morton PF 17 2-3 1-1 1 5 0 1 5
Craig Cervantez PF 11 2-7 2-3 2 2 0 0 6
Aaron Payne SF 8 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0
Omari Turner SG 8 1-2 0-0 0 1 0 1 2
Brandon Fells C 4 0-3 0-0 2 2 0 0 0
Turnovers: 17 (A.Young 1, E.Goodman 6, D.Massey 2,
O.Vaillancourt 5, J.Morton 2, A.Payne 1)
Blocked Shots: 3 (R.Lee 1, A.Young 2)
Steals: 3 (R.Lee 1, D.Massey 1, C.Cervantez 1)
3P FGs: 6-19 (R.Lee 1-1, A.Young 0-1, E.Goodman 2-3,
D.Massey 2-7, O.Vaillancourt 1-4, H.Brill 0-1,
C.Cervantez 0-2)
USC Upstate (3-2, 0-0):
Player Pos Min Fgm-a Ftm-a Off Reb Ast PF Pts
Hal Wade C 33 9-13 2-3 1 5 1 2 20
James Cameron PF 23 2-3 2-2 0 4 1 3 6
Lewis Bumgardner SF 19 2-4 1-3 1 3 1 2 6
Chris Gilley SG 31 5-8 4-4 0 2 1 2 16
Ronald Aguilar PG 27 5-14 2-2 2 3 0 1 14
Arthur Davis SF 20 2-4 0-0 1 7 4 1 5
Ronald Oswalt PG 18 2-3 1-1 1 1 6 2 5
Joseph Abram PF 20 4-7 1-1 3 5 1 1 9
Jeremy Eley C 3 0-0 0-0 0 2 0 0 0
S. Hutchinson SG 3 1-3 0-0 0 0 0 1 2
Clemmye Adjei PG 1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0
Aaron Abakah SF 1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0
Aaron White PF 1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0
Turnovers: 7 (H.Wade 1, J.Cameron 1, L.Bumgardner 2,
C.Gilley 1, R.Aguilar 1, A.Davis 1)
Blocked Shots: 2 (J.Abram 2)
Steals: 9 (H.Wade 1, J.Cameron 2, L.Bumgardner 1,
R.Aguilar 2, A.Davis 2, R.Oswalt 1)
3P FGs: 6-15 (L.Bumgardner 1-3, C.Gilley 2-4, R.Aguilar
2-5, A.Davis 1-1, R.Oswalt 0-1, S.Hutchinson 0-1)
Player of Game: C Hal Wade (USC U)