How to watch and what to watch for: South Carolina looks to get back on track versus East Carolina

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South Carolina was bound to lose at some point this year. Now that it’s happened, the Gamecocks need to win to avoid a two-game losing streak.

They’ll travel to play East Carolina out in Greenville, NC, on Saturday afternoon. Tip-off is at 12 p.m. on ESPNU. But it will also be available for streaming on Fubo TV.

Here are some things to watch for.

Need to win the rebound battle

In South Carolina’s 72-67 loss to Clemson on Wednesday, the Tigers won the rebound battle 42-38. That’s only four more rebounds than the Gamecocks had, but they made a big difference.

Clemson had 16 second-chance points, which came from grabbing those extra rebounds. The good thing for the Gamecocks is that ECU isn’t a great defensive rebounding team. So they should be able to take care of business in the paint. But if not, they have to find a way to avoid giving up those extra buckets.

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Meechie can’t do it by himself

A lot of credit needs to be given to Meechie Johnson. He’s been the star behind South Carolina’s recent success, dropping more than 20 points in four of his last five games. The junior guard finished 26 points on 8-of-16 shooting against Clemson.

That being said, his teammates around him need to do their part as well. That’s what hurt this team last year. It cannot become a one-man operation. When everyone is doing their part, they tend to come out on top.

Take out Johnson’s six made three-pointers and everyone else combined to shoot 20 percent from three-point range. No one else made more than one triple. It was an especially tough game for BJ Mack, who went 0-for-6 from deep. Even Myles Stute went 1-for-8 shooting.

Everything that went wrong is fixable, though. If the main core of shooters can get hot, they’ll be just fine moving forward.

Can the defense replicate the first half?

For all the things that went wrong in the second half Wednesday, it’s easy to forget all the good the Gamecocks did before the break. They held Clemson scoreless in the finals seven and a half minutes of the first half.

That was the best South Carolina has played defensively all year. It held the Tigers to just 23 points on 9-of-29 shooting. Plus, it only gave up four second-chance points.

The second half was a different story. Clemson came from behind and scored 49 points to pull away to a big home win. So it’s going to be interesting to see which version of the Gamecocks show up defensively on Saturday.

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CMB looking better and better

Last week, Lamont Paris had said Collin Murray-Boyles, who had just played in first game after recovering from mono, wouldn’t play more than 20 minutes yet. But he nearly broke that deal on Wednesday.

Murray-Boyles played 17 minutes and scored five points on 2-of-5 shooting. He also had four rebounds and a block. Now, he does need to be better from the free-throw line, as do a lot of other guys. He went 1-for-4.

But he’s showing what type of player he can be early on. He was able to get open plenty of times in the paint and take in some nifty passes from guys like Johnson and Ta’Lon Cooper. Soon enough, he could be a consistent starter on this team if the opportunity presents itself.

Scouting the opponent

In Mike Schwartz’s second year as head coach of East Carolina, the Pirates are 6-3 on the year. But they haven’t played anyone great with each opponent ranked well outside KenPom’s top 100.

Their worst loss so far came against USC Upstate, who South Carolina beat handily to open the season. ECU (ranked No. 203 in KenPom) will come into this game on a two-game winning streak, but the Gamecocks should handle business.

However, it’s not going to be that simple. South Carolina can’t just walk into this game and expect to have an easy win handed over. The Pirates do have some capable shooters plus the home court advantage.

Junior guard RJ Felton leads the team with 16.3 points per game. He’s been pretty consistent, but he can also turn up the notch on his play when he needs to. He dropped more than 30 points in both the second and third game of the year against Campbell and USC Upstate. His matchup against Johnson should be a fascinating one.

ECU also has a pretty good front court pairing of 6-foot-8 forwards Brandon Johnson and Ezra Ausar. Johnson is having a great year, averaging 15.3 points per game on 40.2 percent shooting. He can also string it from three-point range, hitting at a 35 percent rate. He leads the team with 8.4 rebounds per game.

Ausar is putting up 14.4 points per game on 61.7 percent shooting. He’s more of the guy who will be in the paint and make plays down there as opposed to shooting the three-ball. He can shoot from there but hasn’t taken more than one three-pointer per game this year.

Game details

Who: South Carolina (7-1) at East Carolina (6-3)

When: Saturday, Dec. 9 at 12 p.m.

Where: Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum (7,100)

How to watch/listen: ESPNU/107.5 FM

ESPN gives South Carolina a 59.1 percent chance to win

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