Box Score

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JACKSONVILLE – Five Gamecocks scored in double figures for the second-straight game on Monday, but the hot shooting of USC Upstate was the story in an 82-77 Spartans win at Pete Mathews Coliseum.

The Gamecocks (9-15), who went over a year without having five players score in double digits until achieving the feat on Saturday, watched Brian Williams pour in 21 points to lead the quintet on Monday. However, the Spartans (14-9) blistered the nets by shooting 64 percent, including a 7-for-9 effort from behind the arc to extend their winning streak to four games and end JSU's at three.

Willliams, a sophomore from Lawrenceville, Ga., went 9-for-14 from the floor but put the Gamecocks on his back for a stretch in the second half. He scored 18 of his points in the final 20 minutes, a period in which he made eight of his nine attempts from the floor. He was 3-for-6 from behind the arc on the night, while dishing three assists and pulling in four rebounds.

Junior Tarvin Gaines added 13 points, six of which came from his seven free throw attempts, while freshman Darion Rackley pitched in 11 after being named the Ohio Valley Conference's Freshman of the Week earlier in the day. Sophomore Grant White scored a career-best 10 points, and sophomore Nick Cook also added 10. Junior Ronnie Boggs scored nine in the loss.

USC Upstate also had five players in double figures, a group led by Ty Greene's 17. Ricardo Glenn scored 11 but led all players with eight rebounds.

JSU was led on the glass by Cook, whose five boards paced a 28-26 advantage in the rebounding column.

Upstate won the battle inside, using a 38-30 advantage in the paint, and outscored JSU 16-11 in points off turnovers despite turning it over 17 times to just 12 for the Gamecocks.

The game saw 14 lead changes and seven ties, but the lead only swapped hands twice in the second half. Upstate took a 40-37 lead into the half, and after stretching it to as many as eight several times in the first eight minutes, the Gamecocks finally mounted a run.

JSU put together an 11-0 run the turned a seven-point deficit into a 60-56 lead with 8:27 remaining, but seven unanswered from the Spartans to answer gave them the final lead of the night. They would extend it to as many as many as eight with less than 90 seconds to play, but JSU had one more run in it.

After treys from Williams and Gaines, and then a pair of free throws from Cook that pulled the Gamecocks to within two with 17 ticks remaining, Greene made one of his two free throws to give JSU a shot down three. Gaines try from well beyond the top of the key missed, and the Spartans got away with the win.

The Gamecocks get back to OVC play on Thursday, when they travel to Martin, Tenn., to face UT Martin at 7 p.m. JSU will be looking for its first four-game OVC winning streak in its ninth season in the league.