Fast start, second-half run propels South Carolina to win over PC

Hayden Brown’s eyes widened as he picked up the ball and looked at the rim. At the time, South Carolina was clinging to a one-point lead and in need of something good to happen. 

Brown rose as a Presbyterian player jumped and Brown slammed the ball home. It was a posterizing dunk that sparked a massive second-half run to push South Carolina to a 68-57 win over Presbyterian Sunday.

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How it happened

South Carolina (5-4) started about as well as it could, hitting six of its first seven shots a building a lead thanks to strong play from both GG Jackson and Meechie Johnson. Things ballooned all the way to 15 points before Presbyterian flipped the script. 

The Blue Hose went on a 13-3 run over a four-minute stretch that saw South Carolina struggle to make shots and defend the interior. The Gamecocks lead dwindled to just two, but a Jackson bucket and a missed Presbyterian three pushed it back to four at the break. 

“We let up. Going into the second half, we knew they were going to come out strong and have some confidence,” Meechie Johnson, who finished with 16 points. “We didn’t want that to carry on late in the game in a tight game at the end. We knew we had to come together as a team.”

South Carolina struggled out of the break, too, surrendering the lead and missing its first six shots. The Gamecocks’ first make of the second half came at the 14:40 mark. 

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Despite scuffling, South Carolina did enough to hang around, searching for someone to step up. Hayden Brown did. After a tough first half, Brown came up huge down the stretch. The graduate transfer kickstarted things with a poster dunk then, after a defensive stop, drilled a three. 

It was a 5-0 spurt on his own but was part of a 14-0 Gamecocks run where South Carolina built its lead back up to six.

“At some point in the first half we missed five what I would call layups. If you’re inside the charge arc when you shoot it I call it a layup. We missed five of those, including one that got blocked,” Paris said. “It kind of changed the tide a little bit. But I thought the guys did a good job in the second half defensively. We held them to 24 in the second half and did some really good things…There was a stretch in the second half where I liked what we were doing.” 

Brown dominated the stretch run in the second half, finishing with 11 points out of the break on 5-for-7 shooting. That run helped the Gamecocks keep Presbyterian at arm’s length and pick up consecutive wins. 

“I think there are going to be ebbs and flows of a basketball game. We know that to be true,” Brown said. “I try to self-reflect in moments where it does get tough and say, ‘What can I do? How can I be a better teammate? What can I do energy-wise?”

Two observations

This team has to make jump shots to win–It might sound painfully obvious, but the Gamecocks are dependent on having to hit jump shots, especially threes, to be a good offense. When South Carolina goes on shooting slumps things tend to bog down. The Gamecocks went on a slump right before and right after half and Presbyterian clawed back. When they ballooned the lead late, it started by hitting threes and opened up more driving lanes.  

South Carolina is still searching for frontcourt consistency–The Gamecocks have to find some way to get consistent play possession to possession from their bigs. Josh Gray got a ton of run Sunday, especially in the second half, and had flashes of both good and bad. He finished with four points and seven boards but had three fouls and struggled defensively at times. Presbyterian had the same number of rebounds (25) as South Carolina.

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“It hasn’t been consistent and hasn’t been one guy…In this game, Ben (Bosmans-Verdonk) comes out and makes his first two baskets and you think it’s going to be Ben’s day. Then he picks up two fouls,” Paris said. We ended up having to get back to Josh. We’re still searching for some consistency and predictability in terms of what guys are going to do and what they’re definitely going to bring every single day.”

Key stat

8 to 5–The math is pretty simple. South Carolina hit eight threes and shot 36.4 percent from deep while Presbyterian hit five on 13 attempts. The Gamecocks ended up winning by 11 and used the three-ball to do it.  

Turning point

It didn’t start the run, but Brown’s posterizing dunk where he rose up and slammed it on a Blue Hose player’s head sure sparked it. That was the second bucket of a 14-0 run and South Carolina was able to hold on for the win.

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Up next

South Carolina has a quick turnaround, just a zippy two days off before traveling to UAB, one of the best mid-major programs in the country. Tip-off is scheduled for Dec. 14 at 7 p.m. on the CBS Sports Network. 

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