After tough start, BJ Mack gets last laugh with big finish over East Carolina

With just under five minutes to go, a personal foul was called on BJ Mack. He jumped up and down, throwing his hands up in the air in disbelief. It was his fourth foul of the day, putting him one away from fouling out.

Head coach Lamont Paris had no choice but to take him out. As Mack walked over to the bench, “Eat more salad!” chants poured out from the East Carolina crowd.

It had been a struggle for the senior forward all game long. He wasn’t making shots like he normally was and he was dealing with foul trouble and the hostile crowd. But two minutes later, Paris chose to be risky and put Mack back out there.

“At that time, I wanted him on the floor,” Paris said. “He’s smart, played with his feet and without his hands. And we also started crowding the isolation area a little bit more. Once in the opposite end and away from their bench. We show a lot of attention to the iso situation and he was forced to pass it. I thought that adjustment was really important to be honest with you in those possessions.”

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After checking back in, ECU’s Bobby Pettiford hit a mid-range jumper right in Mack’s face to take a one-point lead. How would he respond to a moment like that after having a tough day on the floor?

On the next possession, Mack was open at the top of the key and splashed a three-pointer to give South Carolina the lead right back. While it was his only triple of the day, it couldn’t have come at a better time.

“He lives for those moments. We talk about those moments,” guard Meechie Johnson said. “Sometimes at practice, we act like, ‘3, 2, 1!’ get a big shot when we need one. For him to come out and hit those shots that we needed down the stretch was a lot of balls for him.

“We compete hard in practice. In practice a lot of times, we’re in those type of games in practice. Two minutes left and it’s a tie game in practice, and he’ll hit a big shot. Kudos go to him for just stepping up and hitting those shots.”

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Now with under a minute to play, the Pirates managed to tie the game again and had the ball back with a chance to go ahead. As ECU drove down the lane, Mack got in there and blocked the shot. He was immediately fouled after and went to the line for an all-important one-and-one.

Mack sank the first free throw but missed the second to put the Gamecocks ahead by one point with 37 seconds to go. He did finish 4-for-7 from the line, though. But it didn’t matter when he hit the one that counted the most.

“You have to have a high level of belief. And honestly, it goes two ways. He’s got to have a high level of belief, I have to have a lot of trust, and I did. When he missed some free throws on the one-and-one, I could’ve put anybody in there at that point,” Paris said.

“But we had a lot of faith in him. He’s a confident guy. It was a good look for him and he finished it. He made a nice drive off of the shot fake one time. And again, he made enough free throws. We could’ve been in a different scenario, but he made enough free throws.”

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East Carolina wouldn’t make another shot the rest of the way and went into foul mode. After making a few more free throws, South Carolina held on to win 68-62 on Saturday.

Even though he didn’t have the best game, Mack stepped up when his team needed him the most. As a result, he made the go-ahead shot to silence the crowd.

“He wasn’t hitting a lot of shots but down the stretch he made good shots cause we stayed in his ear the whole game telling him, ‘Your shot’s going to fall. This is what you work on every day.’ It just shows the type of poise he has,” guard Ta’Lon Cooper said.

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