By: by Scott Lipsky
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SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Hungry to put an end to their four-game slide, the Kennesaw State Owls take to the court on Monday evening, as they visit the USC Upstate Spartans at the G.B. Hodge Center at 7:30 p.m.
The Owls (5-16, 3-8 Atlantic Sun Conference) are looking to put behind them a Saturday afternoon game that saw Markeith Cummings tie a team season-high with 29 points, but also saw host East Tennessee State shoot 62.3 percent from the field on their way to a, 93-62, defeat.
“For us, it’s all about rebounding from Saturday and bouncing back from that kind of performance,” Owls head coach Tony Ingle said. “We need to make sure we’re ready to play, and any time you’re on the road, it’s going to be a battle.”
Like the Owls, the Spartans (2-19, 1-10 A-Sun) are also looking to end a skid of their own, this one of the 13-game variety. Most recently, they are coming off of a, 65-53, loss to Mercer on Saturday.
Records can be deceiving, and USC Upstate’s is no exception. Six of the Spartans’ losses have been by single digits, and their non-conference schedule included the likes of Auburn and South Carolina of the SEC, Virginia, North Carolina State and Virginia Tech of the ACC and Michigan of the Big Ten, all of those games coming on the road.
USCU is led by a trio of freshmen in forwards Torrey Craig, Babatunde Olumuyiwa and Ricardo Glenn and senior guard Josh Chavis. Craig currently sits eighth in the conference at 14.2 points per game and sixth with 7.0 rebounds per game. Like the Owls Aaron Anderson, who was named the A-Sun’s Newcomer of the Week on Nov. 16, Craig also earned those honors, his coming on Dec. 7.
Olumuyiwa is the conference’s most prolific shot-blocker at 2.57 blocks per game. Chavis is the second leading scorer on the team at 7.9 per game, while Glenn is second on the team in rebounding at 5.7 per contest.
The Owls and Spartans share the fact that their highest ranking in statistical categories within the A-Sun is in blocks, USC Upstate averaging 4.00 per game to rank second, and the Owls right behind them with 3.90 per contest to currently find themselves third in that category. Owls sophomore LaDaris Green leads his squad in that category, averaging 1.75 per game to place fifth in the conference. In 20 games this season, Green has had three or more blocks on six occasions.
The Black and Gold were able to end their last skid against the Spartans, snapping their program-record 10 game losing streak on Jan. 3 with a, 78-71, win over USC Upstate at the KSU Convocation, a game in which Spencer Dixon (24 points) and Kelvin McConnell (23) carried the load offensively and Anderson (16 rebounds) took care of business on the glass.
Monday will be the seventh time the two squads have met at the NCAA Division I level, with Upstate holding a 4-2 advantage since the new series started upon the Spartans’ transition up to college basketball’s highest level during the 2007-08 season. Overall, the Spartans hold a 14-9 lead in the all-time series, most of which took place when the two were rivals in the Peach Belt Conference at the Division II level.
The Owls are just 3-8 in Spartanburg, and the last time they were victorious here was in a thrilling, 87-82, triple-overtime victory on Jan. 17, 2004, when the institution was known as USC-Spartanburg and the athletic department’s nickname was the Rifles. The two teams did not face each other during the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons since the Owls moved up in division in 2005 and the Spartans did not do so until 2007.
Monday’s game can be heard live on Talk 920 AM and www.talk920.com, with play-by-play voice Craig Corbin and color analyst and Owls great Scott Webb calling all of the action. Fans can also watch the game live on the A-Sun’s subscription streaming service, A-Sun.tv. Live stats will also be available.
