Rivalry woes: USC basketball loses lead, drops first game of season to Clemson
Purple and orange balloons waved around the Clemson student section inside Littlejohn Coliseum. The pockets of garnet and black just behind the USC bench and above section 234 continued screaming for the Gamecocks.
Every whistle, fans in the arena held their breath. Every missed USC free throw, Clemson fans erupted. After nearly silencing the Tigers in the first 20 minutes, Clemson stormed back.
Long gone was South Carolina’s undefeated start, and revenge from a year ago was served as No. 24 Clemson took the 72-67 win over South Carolina.
“It was going to be a tough loss, no matter who won this game,” South Carolina head coach Lamont Paris said.
Tigers bouncing back
Regardless of a rather forgetful first half, the Tigers made the switch from PJ Hall to Joe Girard III as their main scorer two minutes into the second half and it paid off.
Girard led Clemson on an 11-0 run that brought Clemson back within one possession halfway through the second half. The Tigers finally got the leg up with nine minutes to play, and by then the rivals were trading leads. Six ties and seven lead changes later, Clemson could finally exhale with 90 seconds to play.
“We didn’t really make a lot of plays,” USC’s BJ Mack said of the second half. “We missed three-straight shots that were wide open for us we usually knock down.”
Clemson’s defensive rebounding efforts made it near impossible for USC to pick up second-chance points during the run, and Clemson won the turnover battle, 42-38.
Ian Schieffelin and Hall led the team in rebounds, with 12 and eight, respectively. Clemson scored 10 points off turnovers. All five starters for the Tigers scored in double-digits, scoring a combined 63 points.
Teamwork hit
Of the eight games USC has played this season, Clemson was by far the best team game the Gamecocks played.
Ta’Lon Cooper never stopped moving on the court. Zachary Davis scored clutch 3-pointers in the first half. Meechie Johnson and BJ Mack weren’t afraid to take contested shots, and won a few. Stephen Clark got his hands dirty in the paint and scored a season-high 10 points.
They just couldn’t finish it off in the end.
“It got down to towards the end, to the nitty gritty, and we and we didn’t make any plays,” Paris said. “At that stage of the game, you’ve got to make a couple of those plays.”
South Carolina hasn’t played a flawless game this season, but against a Clemson team where everyone has to contribute, the Gamecocks did all they could. Clemson’s Girard and Hall were top priorities on the scouting report. Sure, both players scored double-digit points, but USC didn’t make it easy on them.
The final minutes of the contest were when USC finally started showing the wear and tear. Self-inflicted errors, including letting guard Chauncey Wiggins get hot late, were more prevalent.
“They scored a lot more points in that second half,” Johnson said. “We just weren’t as together as we were in the first half.”
Still, holding the No. 24 team to 72 points on the road isn’t a bad stat. This was going to be a difficult game.
Holding the Tigers scoreless
Clemson has averaged 36.2 points in the first half this season. South Carolina held them to 23.
The Gamecocks’ defense successfully kept the ball away from Hall and Girard after the starting pair scored seven unanswered points to tie the game at 23-all. For the next 7:37, the Tigers couldn’t get anything to fall.
“We were communicating a lot and we were together,” Johnson said. “And we honestly have been doing a pretty good job of that.”
A few shots trickled in and out, but most just bounced off the rim. The occasional thud from the backboard grew louder and louder as USC collected rebound after rebound. Clemson had a steal just seconds before the half, but Johnson swiped it away to keep the Tigers at bay.
Twenty-three points tied Clemson’s season-low for first half points with its game against Davidson on Nov. 12.
Other notable stats
- Johnson has scored at least 24 points in four of the last five games, going back to USC’s win over DePaul on Nov. 17. He has 151 points this season.
- Clemson, now 8-0, has its best start since the 2008-09 season, where the Tigers won their first 16 games.
- South Carolina is 2-7 when bouncing back from a road loss under Paris. Three of those losses came on a neutral site, during the Charleston Classic.
Next four South Carolina games
- Saturday: at East Carolina, noon (ESPNU)
- Dec. 16: vs. Charleston Southern, 6 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)
- Dec. 19: vs. Winthrop, 7 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)
- Dec. 22: vs. Elon, 6 p.m. (SEC Network)
This story was originally published December 6, 2023 at 10:11 PM with the headline "Rivalry woes: USC basketball loses lead, drops first game of season to Clemson."
