South Carolina pulls away late to pick up home win over Charleston Southern

In a game South Carolina was supposed to dominate, the complete opposite almost happened. The Gamecocks, playing a Charleston Southern team ranked nearly dead-last in KenPom, hung on to win 73-69 on Saturday.

“I’ll give credit where credit is due, I thought they played really well,” head coach Lamont Paris said about the Bucs. “I thought they made some difficult shots. We certainly made some defensive mistakes…But I give us some credit to for finding a way to end up in the proper column in this game.”

How it happened

With South Carolina (9-1) not having played for a week, it took some time to shake off the rust. And it’s not that it wasn’t playing well. Every time the Gamecocks hit a shot, Charleston Southern followed up with a bucket of its own.

Throughout the first half, there were six lead changes and three points where the game was tied. It was very neck and neck the whole way through.

At times, South Carolina picked it up and played better. During the middle of the half, the Bucs went 0-for-6 shooting, while the Gamecocks hit six of their last seven shots. But they could never pull away.

In the final two minutes before the break, Meechie Johnson got it going, hitting a pair of three-pointers. And despite shooting 67 percent from the field, South Carolina only held a three-point lead at halftime.

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Coming out of the break, both teams looked sluggish, but especially South Carolina. Shots weren’t coming at a premium as it barely hung onto its lead. Charleston Southern eventually captured the lead before quickly falling behind again.

After the Bucs cut the deficit to one point, the Gamecocks went on a 9-0 run over a two-minute span to create some separation. But after South Carolina went up by eight, Charleston Southern responded with a 7-0 run of its own to take the lead back with under 13 minutes to go.

Things continued to go back and forth until South Carolina broke away with a 6-0 run. Still, the Bucs never let up and continued to fight, making it hard to gain a big lead.

“Just hunker down and be solid,” Paris told his team during a timeout he called after the run. “I thought that was a big message for us was just to be solid. While I wanted to be aggressive, I also wanted us to know when it was time to be solid.”

With the game still close, Meechie Johnson tried to take a three-pointer from the top of the key, but he was fouled. So he went to the line for three crucial free throws and hit all of them to put the Gamecocks up by eight with two minutes to play.

But just like before, Charleston Southern wasn’t done yet. It hit two straight shots to make it a four-point game with less than a minute to go.

However, it wouldn’t be enough. BJ Mack missed a shot with under 30 seconds to go, which Ta’Lon Cooper quickly rebounded to draw a foul. A few free throws later, South Carolina escaped with the win.

“I was very relieved to know that Ta’Lon’s always got my back in those situations,” Mack said.

RELATED: South Carolina-Charleston Southern box score

Two observations

Maintaining a lead is still a problem—Despite getting the win, South Carolina really had to earn this one. Almost every time it grabbed the lead, Charleston Southern went on a run to tie the game or take the lead back. So it was a tough game. But the Gamecocks found a way in the end to win, which is becoming a common theme for this group.

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Charleston Southern isn’t as bad as it seems—Records don’t always tell the whole story. It certainly didn’t on Saturday. The Bucs gave the Gamecocks everything they had. That was a team who didn’t play like they had a 3-6 record. They countered almost every shot South Carolina hit to keep the game close.

Key stat

39 to 26—South Carolina did a better job in the second half to win the rebound battle. But it’s safe to say the Gamecocks could’ve done better throughout the whole game. Charleston Southern made it tough most of the night.

“Our pursuit in it was the big thing,” Mack said. “We made an emphasis going into the game of trying to dominate them on the boards. So that was one of the challenges for us, and we just didn’t get the job done in the first half. But second half, we made an effort to it.”

Turning point

With just under two minutes to go, Meechie Johnson was fouled right behind the three-point line, giving him three free throw shots. He managed to hit all three to put South Carolina ahead by eight points.

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Up next

South Carolina will continue its home stand against Winthrop on Tuesday. Tip-off is at 7 p.m. on SEC Network Plus.

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