South Carolina edges SC State in season opener

It wasn’t pretty at times, but South Carolina escaped with a win in the first official game of the Lamont Paris era, 80-77.

The Gamecocks avoided a major upset, edging out a three-point win over South Carolina State, which was ranked No. 350 out of 363 teams in KenPom’s preseason rankings.

“There are a lot of high-majors upset by mid-majors. I told the guys that I said, it is what it is. It’s good. There’ll be some good evidence for us,” Paris said. “But at the same time, there were a lot of coaches sitting in my chair who played yesterday that are feeling a lot worse about what happened than what we were today. And so they found a way to win. I felt good about that. And so we’ll just continue to continue to grow.”

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How it happened

South Carolina jumped out to a double-digit lead in the first half but that quickly went away after Meechie Johnson briefly exited the game with an apparent ankle injury. SC State responded with an immediate 11-0 run and briefly took the lead.

“You know, before he checks out I think we’re up 14 and after that, we ended up being in a nip and tuck situation the rest of the game. The good thing about that is that there were all kinds of situations that we could not at practice we can’t simulate guys had to make a couple of clutch free throws,” Paris said. “We had to foul up three at the very end of the game. You know you can try all you want to practice and just the guys go half-speed at that. So it was good to get that.”

The Gamecocks took a three-point lead into halftime, shooting 34.4 percent from the field and 33.3 percent from three. The Bulldogs, for comparison, shot 43.3 percent from the field and went 3-for-10 from three.

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South Carolina saw its second-half lead balloon to double-digits but, with Johnson in and out of the lineup still with injury, the Gamecocks could never really hold a lead. The Bulldogs would hit a bevy of contested threes and go 8-for-16 in the second half.

“I think that was a big part of it. He’s a good creator. I mean, he’s our point. And so you know, it’s like, all the positions count for the same. They’re all just as valuable. The center is just as valuable as the quarterback,” Paris said.

“But you just don’t see as many people say we lost the game, but our center had a bad game as a center. So when your quarterback or when your point guard is not available or can’t play the way that they want to it oftentimes affects the synergy of your team.”

The Gamecocks tried to keep things at arm’s reach with GG Jackson getting a big three-point play with about eight minutes to go and South Carolina was able to hold on for a win.

South Carolina used a Jacobi Wright, who finished with a career-high 14 points, three to go up nine. Then, followed by South Carolina State missing a pair at the line, Hayden Brown split two at the charity stripe to put the Gamecocks up 10.

The Bulldogs chipped away to make it a five-point game with 2:35 to play but South Carolina was able to push that back to six with another Jackson three-point play. SC State would stay scrappy, using a jump ball call and a layup to make it a two-point game with 3.6 seconds left.

Jacobi Wright hit one of two at the line to make it a three-point game after that and South Carolina State missed its first free throw as South Carolina held on for the three-point win.

Three observations

South Carolina needs Johnson on the floor–While GG Jackson finds his role and adjusts to college basketball, Johnson might be South Carolina’s most important player. He finished with nine points and was plus-10 in 25 minutes. South Carolina needs him on the floor if it wants to be a good team. He left the game again in the second half in what looked like some serious pain. He limped over to the bench and was attended to by trainers.

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GG Jackson showed why he was a top-10 player: Yes, he had some freshmen moments but Jackson flashed to the tune of 18 points on 7-for-15 shooting and 10 boards. He also hit a pair of threes in his college debut. South Carolina is going to need him, like Johnson, to be an anchor offensively. When the Gamecocks needed him to make a few big plays, he did. Jackson converted a three-point play late and was able to get to the line a few times during this stretch run.

There are still going to be growing pains: There were times South Carolina looked crisp and others when things looked really dysfunctional. The Gamecocks went through spurts where they played really well and got smart, high-IQ plays paired with good shots. Then other times South Carolina settled for bad shots and had some lackluster turnovers. SC State did get to its spots a little too easily at times. The Gamecocks turned the ball over 11 times.

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Two stats

8-for-16: SC State was that from three in the second half, the biggest reason why the Bulldogs were able to make this a game late.

34: That’s how many points in the paint South Carolina had Tuesday night. The Gamecocks were 12-for-22 on layups and had some success at times converting inside but need to be better.

Player of the game

In his first action ever as a Gamecock, Hayden Brown was just about everywhere Tuesday night. He finished with 21 points on 6-for-10 shooting. Brown had five rebounds and a block. He got to the line 12 times, converting on nine attempts. He played a really quality game defensively as well. He was everywhere Tuesday night in 27 minutes, finishing plus-10.

Brown had 13 of his 21 points in the second half on 4-for-8 shooting.

“I think that’s being around a game and around college basketball for six years and having a feel for a situation and recognizing that, ‘Hey, I have an opportunity to help my team right now,”’ Brown said. “So if I need to be demanding if I need to do what I need to do, let me do that. So it was kind of just a feel for the moment.”

Up next

South Carolina has its last game before the Charleston Classic Friday, and it’s a big one. The Gamecocks host rival Clemson Nov. 11 at 7 p.m. The game will be on SECN Plus.

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