South Carolina beats Virginia Tech in bounce back win to wrap up play in Fort Myers

Virginia Tech’s defense unwisely left too much room to shoot. South Carolina took full advantage.

On a night where the Gamecocks knocked down 11 three-pointers, they picked up a 70-60 win over the Hokies in the third-place game of the Fort Myers Tip-Off on Wednesday.

South Carolina now moves to 4-3 on the year and leaves Fort Myers with a 1-1 split. It very well could’ve been a clean sweep if not for a rough second half against Xavier on Monday. But this was a much-needed bounce back win for the team.

How it happened

The Gamecocks came out playing good complimentary basketball on both ends of the floor. They got off to a nice start with an early 8-0 run followed by another 8-0 run to build a double-digit lead within the first 10 minutes.

While they weren’t getting a ton of looks inside, they made the most of their situation with good ball movement to create open three-point shots. They went 6-for-17 in the first half from behind the arc.

Morris Ugusuk seemed to be the real standout in the early going, as he went 3-for-6 from three after being left open on most of his shots. But South Carolina also did a nice job of driving to the rim with Collin Murray-Boyles and Zachary Davis both making a few nice maneuvers for layups.

Defensively, this might have been the best the Gamecocks played in the first half. While Virginia Tech made some shots down the stretch, the Hokies were ice cold for a majority of the half. They went more than seven minutes without a field goal, with the Gamecock defense playing tough, especially on driving layups.

The Hokies were 9-for-25 (36 percent) from the field in the first half and only made two three-pointers. Because of those early struggles and South Carolina doing enough offensively, the Gamecocks went into the break with an eight-point cushion.

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After having an inconsistent first half of shooting, Virginia Tech gained some momentum and cut the lead down to three with an 8-0 run. The Hokies started to share the basketball more with six assists after only having one in the first half. But the Gamecocks ended that run with another Ugusuk triple.

The game continued to be tight throughout the rest of the second half with South Carolina never being able to pull away. This was due in part to Virginia Tech shooting a lot better. The Hokies shot 41.2 percent from the field after halftime.

However, the Gamecocks still held onto their lead with help from timely three-point shots made by Jordan Butler and Jacobi Wright to keep the gap where it was. Virginia Tech drilled a pair of threes to get the deficit down to four with under six minutes to go, but Mylyjael Poteat made a big mistake when he fouled Murray-Boyles on the way up for an and one to make it a six-point game.

Things got sloppy in the final minutes with each team committing multiple turnovers. But one of the key differences in the game came with Virginia Tech being held scoreless for a four-minute stretch. Still maintaining a six-point lead with a minute to play, the Gamecocks were now in a position where the Hokies were going to have to foul.

South Carolina went 12-for-19 at the free throw line in the second half to put the game on ice and out of reach. But it was more so the timely shots and strong defensive play that proved to be the difference. They went 5-for-15 from behind the arc and forced six turnovers.

Murray-Boyles led the way with 16 points and eight rebounds on 7-of-12 shooting from the field. While he did turn the ball over four times, he more than made up for it with three steals and two blocked shots.

South Carolina got some nice production from its bench in a game where the starters, outside of Murray-Boyles, were a combined 5-for-18 shooting. Davis and Ugusuk both had 12 points, while Butler went perfect from three-point range with a pair of triples.

Two observations

Sloppy second half but good enough to win—This was far from a clean performance from the Gamecocks. But even when they weren’t at their best in the second half, they still stayed out in front and made some key shots along with solid defense to win this one.

Defense was better—South Carolina did a nice job defending in this game. The Gamecocks held the Hokies to 39 percent shooting from the field on the night and forced nine turnovers with four steals and three blocks.

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Key stat

11-for-32—Some might’ve liked to see the Gamecocks attack the basket and play more in the paint to score points. But with the room they had to shoot from behind the arc, it became too hard to ignore. South Carolina drilled 11 threes and shot 34.4 percent from deep in the game.

Turning point

Up by four with just over four minutes remaining, Murray-Boyles made a big second-chance layup and was fouled on the way up to extend the lead to six. The Gamecocks would keep that lead where it was and forced the Hokies to go into foul mode in the final minute of the game.

Up next

With the Thanksgiving holiday, South Carolina will have a few days off before playing its next game. The team returns to action next Tuesday, Dec. 3 when it travels up north to face Boston College in the SEC/ACC Challenge. Tip-off is at 7 p.m. on ACC Network.

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