Paris shares excitement about pair of younger players in South Carolina's exhibition win

It may have just been one game, though in hindsight just an exhibition game. But if South Carolina’s talent level plays up to how it did Wednesday night, it could be another great year for the Gamecocks.

In a game where a lot of players were going to get a chance to make an impact, South Carolina’s bench scored 50 points in an 86-60 win over Wooster. At the forefront of that were newcomers Arden Conyers and Cam Scott who combined for 32 of those bench points.

Both Conyers and Scott finished with 16 points apiece. They still played a good bit even while coming off the bench. But it showed South Carolina’s team capabilities go beyond just its starting five.

“It doesn’t matter who starts. We all believe in our abilities, so we’re going to play our game at the end of the day,” Conyers said. “So, yeah, this could be a preview; it is a preview and we’re going to play with aggression every time.”

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Scott, a highly touted freshman guard, was one of the first to check into the game off the bench and was greeted with a nice ovation from the small crowd at Colonial Life Arena. Less than a minute into his time on the floor, he drained his first shot, a three-pointer, which set the wheels in motion for him.

“Just seeing that first one go through, I felt like it really uplifted my confidence,” Scott said. “And just hearing my teammates behind me, even on the missed shots, they were still there picking me up. I just felt like they kept my confidence high the whole game where I could do and pretty much take whatever shot that was in our system.”

Scott played well in the first half as he racked up 10 points on 3-of-5 shooting from the outside. In the second half, he only had six points and went 0-for-3 from three, but he still had a nice night in his first true action of the season.

“You talk about a guy like Cam and all the hoopla that has been around him in a de-commitment and you’re staying home, and you have a ranking and all these things,” head coach Lamont Paris said. “To go out there and be comfortable, as comfortable as he was, says a lot about who he is internally as a person and as a competitor. He’s a very confident guy. So, that’s not easy to do under those circumstances to go out there and play.”

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Much later in the first half, Conyers came in for the first time and subsequently knocked down his first shot like Scott did from three-point range. The redshirt freshman guard then checked back in a few minutes into the second half with the Gamecocks clinging a two-point lead. Then his takeover began.

In what would be a 26-6 run over an eight-minute stretch, Conyers made five straight shots, including a trio of threes. Wooster had plenty of trouble slowing him down as he went 6-for-7 shooting with four made threes in 18 minutes.

“This is extremely encouraging and exciting for me because you take a guy that no one knew about probably at this level,” Paris said. “He redshirts and then to see the growth that has happened over the last 365 days is really exciting to me.”

Conyers, along with fellow guard Austin Herro, redshirted last season, which meant he didn’t play at all for South Carolina in his freshman year. Instead, he took a backseat and watched on as the Gamecocks won 26 games and made it to the NCAA Tournament.

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A year removed from when that redshirt journey first began, Conyers is about as “offensively ready” as he can be, according to Paris.

“I’m telling you; his offensive package is diverse. He’s athletic, he’s very versatile. He’s ready, offensively. I don’t have any doubts about that,” Paris said. “Part of the doubt at all is when the lights go on what does that look like? He hadn’t played in a real game right in front of the crowd, and he still hasn’t to that end. But I’m certain that he’s ready, offensively.”

While the stats won’t count towards the actual season, which starts on Monday, it was good for Paris to see his younger players perform the way they did. And that will be important as the season moves along.

“At the heart of it all for me, I’m a developer. It’s what I enjoy most out of all these things — that and the NCAA Tournament,” he said. “But the thing I enjoy the most is developing helping guys develop and then watching them enjoy the growth that they have made when they go out on the floor. And so, to see a young guy do that is really encouraging that can still happen even in 2024 where that’s going to be a rarity in most programs.”

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