Almost halfway through the first half, the South Carolina men’s basketball team had just 3 of 17 field shots and trailed Georgia by six points. The Gamecocks ended the half time by connecting 11 of the next 23 shots on their way to a 10-point lead at half-time, and a convincing 83-59 win to close what was a streak of three games lost.
Junior Keyshawn Bryant sparked Gamecocks (4-5, 2-3) coming off the bench to score 11 points, including three dunks, with six rebounds in the first half. South Carolina forced 12 turns and scored 12 points in those turns to turn what was a six-point deficit into a 13-point lead in the first half.
The Gamecocks continued to evict him offensively in the second half, while continuing to frustrate the Bulldogs on their offensive side of the court. Georgia finished the game with just 32% of field shots and was 18 points below its SEC score per game average.
“It was fun to watch, not only because of the score, but also because of the unity and connection with which we played defensively”, head coach Frank Martin said after the game. “We are a team that seeks two words – trust and identity. Days like yesterday in practice and days like today help us with these two adjectives. “
Bryant, who is coming off the bench for his team, led the way for the Gamecocks by scoring 19 points from 8 out of 15 shots, while having 10 rebounds, the best in the game. Second year Jermaine Couisnard scored 18 points out of 7 out of 16 shots and had a game without a turnover.
“I believe that the guys outside the bank have to bring energy and be interchangeable,” said Martin of Bryant’s role. “You can’t be a trick pony coming out of the bank. I said, ‘Let me try this,’ and it has worked so far. Now that we have Jalyn (McCreary) back, he can do a lot of the things that Keyshawn does. He’s not at the level of basketball player that Keyshawn is now, but he can do many of those Swiss knife-like things that Keyshawn can do. Should I make a change again? I do not know. We are living one day at a time and I will make my decisions accordingly. “
South Carolina really struggled with the ground at the start of the game, but so did Georgia. The Bulldogs missed their first nine attempts behind the three-point line and finished the first half 1 to 12 long distance. The visitors kicked just 33 percent in the first half.
“We made some stops defensively,” said Couisnard, about what motivated the race. “That’s what made us run and gave us the confidence to score at the other end. That’s right, I was managing to stop.
In the last 24h30 of the game, there was only one time that Georgia reduced the deficit to just two possessions. Gamecocks had an advantage of seven points or more throughout the stretch, except for 33 seconds after a 9-2 spurt at the start of the break.
The Gamecocks turned a comfortable win into a rout in the middle of the second half, going in an 8-0 run to take the lead from 64-44 with 7:07 to the end of the game. Georgia hit 1×13 on the pitch during that race.
“We adjust our defense where we don’t extend our defense, from one man to another, as we usually do,” said Martin. “We were not trying to deny it. We played a little more conservative and changed a lot of our defensive rules because we are changing the catch points, the placement of the ball. The guys were really good. We made some mistakes in spinning out of the ball, but that will happen when you change what you are doing. “
Not long after that, the advantage soared to 30 points with 3:58 remaining in the game. South Carolina managed to empty the bank when nine different players scored, with four of them going to double digits.
“We just have to keep stacking positives on top of each other,” said Couisnard. “We have to keep working every day and just build.”
South Carolina are on the road to their next game as they travel to face Vanderbilt this Saturday. The complaint against the Commodores is scheduled for 8:30 pm and will be transmitted by the SEC Network. The Commodores (4-8, 0-6) fell by up to 22, but lost 78-71 to Florida on the road on Wednesday night.