Spartanburg, S.C. – Last week’s A-Sun Player of the Week A.J. Smith (Cocoa, Fla.) once again led Stetson in scoring with 17 points and equaled his career-high of six assists, yet it wasn’t quite enough to get Hatters (10-12, 7-7) over the top as they fell 54-53 on the road to USC Upstate (6-16, 5-8).

With 24 seconds to go in the game, 15 seconds remaining on the shot clock, and the Hatters needing a basket to extend its one-point lead head coach Derek Waugh called for a timeout. Stetson set up a play for a good look at the basket. Blair drove to the basket and kicked the ball back to Tim Lang (Victoria, Australia) for an open 3-point attempt from the top of the key. The ball rimmed out and Upstate scrambled for the rebound.

The Spartans made a long pass up the floor that was deflected out of bounds after almost getting picked off by Kris Thomas (Lithonia, Ga.). After a timeout Upstate inbounded the ball and moved it to Bobby Davis who drove in low under the basket. Garfield Blair (Orlando, Fla) made what seemed to be an outstanding defensive play. With both hands straight up in the air he blocked Davis’ shot. To the disappointment of the Stetson bench, however, a late whistle blew and Upstate’s leading scorer went to the line with 3.4 seconds remaining. Davis sank both free throws and left the Hatters with a desperation shot at the buzzer that hit the rim and bounced wide.

After leading by as many as nine points in the second half, Stetson dropped a game it seemed to have in-hand for most of the day.

“I thought we played well enough to win today,” said Waugh. “Our goal coming in today was to attack them from the start and I think we did that although we didn’t finish well enough inside in the second half.”

“And, the five free throws that we took, we didn’t make,” he added.

As a team Stetson was 2-for-5 from the line. The home team was called for just seven fouls in the game while the visitors were whistled 15 times. Upstate was 5-for-13 in free throws.

“This was a very, very, very, very... very disappointing loss. I thought we played well enough to win,” reiterated an exasperated Waugh.

Stetson opened the second half with a 12-5 run to lead by eight points at the first media timeout.

When the whistle blew for the under-12 timeout at 10:42 Stetson’s lead was cut to six points at 45-39. Upstate came out of its huddle and knocked down 3-of-4 free throws after successive foul calls on Stetson and the score was 45-42.

On the next possession Blair crossed the lane and answered with a stop and pop from 15 feet to continue the back and forth play by both teams.

In addition to Smith’s 17 points in the game Blair scored 12 points and chipped in five rebounds. Lang led the team under the boards with 7 rebounds and chipped in nine points. Davis led the Spartans with 15 points and 13 rebounds.

The Hatters started the game on fire. After a 3-pointer by Smith at 17:13 and a fastbreak dunk by Blair 21 seconds later Stetson held a 15-4 lead. In the next five minutes, however Upstate went on a 14-4 run and the Hatters lead was cut to one point at 19-18.

For the remainder of the period both teams experienced cold spells from the field and exchanged periodic baskets with neither leading by more than two points. Stetson led 29-27 heading into the locker room.

A.J. Smith led all scorers with 11 points at the break. Olivier Dupiton (Montreal, Quebec, Can.) came off the bench to hit 3-of-3 from the field and finish the half two shy of his career-high eight points.

The Hatters will continue its weekend road trip with a game against ETSU on Monday February 9 at 7:00 p.m. The voices of Stetson men’s basketball Murray Miller and Harry Arnold will broadcast the action; the play-by-play and analysis can be heard on Hatter Vision at www.gohatters.com, the official online home of Stetson Athletics. The game’s video feed will also be available through A-Sun TV and on Hatter Vision.

Tickets for all Stetson home games are available on line at www.gohatters.com. For more information call the Stetson University Ticket Office at (386) 822-8110 or email at Hattertickets@stetson.edu.