Collin Murray-Boyles' strong performance comes at right time for South Carolina

Collin Murray-Boyles is only one player. But when he’s at his best, it makes a huge difference in the way his team plays around him.

After back-to-back uncharacteristic performances to begin SEC play, the sophomore forward had a bounce back 25-point outing to help South Carolina nearly pull off an upset of now-No. 1 Auburn on Saturday. The Gamecocks ultimately came up short against the Tigers, losing 66-63, but their star player got back on track in a big way.

In those two games where Murray-Boyles struggled, both of which were blowout losses, he had 11 points and eight turnovers. But almost immediately on Saturday, he went right to the basket and made plays, racking up 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting in the first half.

“We had spent some time in the last couple of practices with attacking downhill, making strong moves towards the basket. This was not just him; this was the entirety of our group,” head coach Lamont Paris said after the game. “… So, we did, emphasized that a lot. Obviously, you could see that in his game today. You could see that in his game.”

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Auburn made some halftime adjustments and did a better job of keeping Murray-Boyles from lighting it up in the second half. Though, he did have seven points with two rebounds and two assists to round out a much-needed good performance for him.

Murray-Boyles admitted he didn’t do anything different in the game, despite struggling as much as he did earlier in the week. He continued to stay focused on what the Gamecocks needed him to do. But he wanted to make sure he played with more aggression.

“I think my first two conference games, I wasn’t being myself and being as aggressive as I showed in non-conference. So, I just wanted to turn it up another notch and play the hardest I could,” he said.

After spending time with Paris in practice working on how to be more aggressive, the results came soon after in the Auburn game. He took a pair of three-point shots — and missed both — but his points usually came inside the paint where he went up for tougher shots against Auburn’s big men.

“He’s very powerful,” Paris said. “I reserve that word for, you know, you can go in the weight room and push weight around and that might make you strong. I don’t know if that makes you powerful. He’s a powerful guy. And so, when he gets downhill and he uses it to his advantage, which he did today, you could see some of that explosion and power.”

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Unsurprisingly, when Murray-Boyles started to play better, so did the rest of the team. South Carolina looked like a ship without a captain, sinking to new lows and playing without much of a fight in rough losses to Mississippi State and Alabama.

But to go along with his 25-point performance, his front court mate Nick Pringle finished with his second double-double of the season. Since the Gamecocks were down two starters, others were forced to step up, leading to Arden Conyers playing a career-high 31 minutes and going for 13 points on 3-for-6 shooting from behind the arc.

Moving forward, South Carolina will continue to ask more of its role players while normal starters Myles Stute and Jamarii Thomas try to work their way back to full strength.

In the meantime, the Gamecocks will need to hope Murray-Boyles can build off his great outing and keep playing that way. After all, they will go as far as he can take them.

“We need him to be aggressive,” Paris said. “We need Nick to be aggressive. I want all of our guys to be aggressive. But certainly, Collin is better suited to be a guy that’s initiating offense and being aggressive.”

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