Gamecocks hold on vs. Mississippi State, notch 20th win
Mississippi State was in the zone.
South Carolina’s zone knocked the Bulldogs out.
A second-half defensive switch cooled a red-hot 3-point shooting performance as the No. 19 Gamecocks survived a back-and-forth contest Saturday, topping the Bulldogs 77-73. USC (20-5, 10-2 SEC) remained tied with Florida and Kentucky for first place in the SEC and notched just its fifth winning league season in 26 years in the league.
The Gamecocks avoided what would have been a bad near-catastrophic loss in a week where they already dropped aone game to a team with an RPI of 77. A loss to the Bulldogs (114 RPI) would have done damage to put their NCAA Tournament hopes in jeopardy.
It Mississippi State looked bleak when MSU (14-10, 5-7) took a one-point lead with five minutes to go, but USC went on a 9-0 run. The Bulldogs wouldn’t back down, but the Gamecocks, in a game where their fundamentals were loose, knew how to preserve it. They got the ball to Sindarius Thornwell.
Thornwell scored a game-high 28, including two important the clinching free throws with 9.2 seconds to go. He scored USC’s first 10 points.
The Gamecocks (20-5, 10-2 Southeastern Conference) bounced back from a 90-86 four-overtime loss at Colonial Life Arena to Alabama on Tuesday.
Thornwell was coming off a 44-point, 21-rebound performance in the Alabama loss. He was nearly as dominant during Saturday’s first half, scoring the Gamecocks’ first 10 points on the way to 19 before halftime.
The Gamecocks’ nation-leading 3-point defense was gashed for 11 shots from long range, five from previously anonymous freshman Tyson Carter. Carter scored a career-high 22 on a night where leading scorer Quinndary Weatherspoon was held to five, and USC didn’t have an immediate answer.
Carter came off the bench to score 16 first-half points for the Bulldogs and the game went into halftime tied at 36.
Their help-side defense was double-teaming driving ball-handlers, leaving guards wide-open on the wings for open 3s. When Gamecocks coach Frank Martin switched to a zone defense, it knocked Mississippi StateMSU for a loop.
The switch gave the Bulldogs much more contested shots and took the focus off another struggling offensive night. Chris Silva (15 points) and Maik Kotsar were spurred late, though, for a combined 25 points to overcome 13 combined points from P.J. Dozier and Duane Notice.
USC was 17-forof-29 from the free-throw line despite being in the bonus with 14 minutes to play in the first half.
Martin joined Eddie Fogler as the only coaches in USC history to notch two winning SEC seasons. Like Fogler in 1996-97 and 1997-98, Martin did it in back-to-back seasons.
This story was originally published February 11, 2017 at 11:11 PM with the headline "Gamecocks hold on vs. Mississippi State, notch 20th win."