Five things we learned from South Carolina's win over Radford

It’ll be a happy week of time off for South Carolina. The Gamecocks, winners of six straight games, will go into their Christmas break (or eight-day layoff) with a 74-48 win over Radford.

Here are five things we learned from watching the way the Gamecocks performed on Sunday.

The second-half defense was really, really good

It could be a local YMCA team or the best of the best in college basketball, holding an opponent to 12 points in one half is very impressive. The Gamecocks outscored Radford 44-12 in the second half to complete a second-half comeback and win in blowout fashion.

The Highlanders were held to those 12 points on 5-of-24 shooting and 0-of-5 from three-point range. Lamont Paris knew his defense was more than capable of locking down Radford in this game. It just took a little bit more time to do so than he probably would’ve liked. But still a fantastic effort nonetheless to keep Radford to 48 total points.

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Nick Pringle had a heck of a day at the line

Remember when North Florida went right at Nick Pringle and forced him to go to the free throw line? He went 3-for-8 in the season opener and looked off with his shots. Ever since then, he’s progressively gotten better with his free throw shooting and proven to be much more knockdown lately.

It all culminated in a perfect 10-for-10 performance at the line on Sunday. Pringle only took one shot and made it but 10 of his 12 points were via free throws. He was the main reason why South Carolina shot 25-for-27 (92.6 percent) at the line.

Turnovers were an issue in the first half but…

On the long list of issues in the first half, turnovers were a major one. The Gamecocks turned the ball over nine times and played extremely sloppy. They just couldn’t get into a rhythm and made a lot of bad passes that sailed out of bounds.

But… South Carolina lowered that number by a good bit after halftime. The Gamecocks got it down to just three turnovers and finished with 12 total. So on the surface, the total number looks bad but when you dive deeper it’s really not all it’s cracked up to be.

Cam Scott is making progress

For the most part, Cam Scott’s freshman season hasn’t been a bit underwhelming. He hasn’t been able to get into a rhythm and play much over the course of non-conference play. But he saw some more time on the floor on Sunday and took advantage of it.

Scott finished with nine points on 3-of-7 shooting in 13 minutes of action. He hit a pair of three-pointers to go 2-for-6 from behind the arc. He looked a lot more comfortable and willing to take shots. The last time it felt that way was when South Carolina played Wooster all the way back in the first exhibition game of the year.

It’s just one game but this can be the jumping off point for him going forward. After all, Paris did say Scott has been making “good progress” throughout this season, which is what you want to hear.

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Start learning the new way to pronounce Morris Ugusuk’s last name

A season and a half into his career at South Carolina, sophomore guard Morris Ugusuk has decided to change the pronunciation of his name. Instead of saying Ugh-uh-suk, he is now Morris Ug-uh-SOOK.

Random thing we learned from this game. And of course, we could talk about how rough that first half was for the Gamecocks. But since it’s the holiday season, this is a fun thing to have learned. It’s completely random but maybe it’ll be a good thing.

Either way, though, people are probably still going to pronounce his last name the way they always have. But now you know. You’re welcome.

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