South Carolina rolls to win over Towson with big road test on deck

With a road trip to Indiana looming, South Carolina still had one more game to play as part of their opening three-game home stand. And as Saturday sets up to be a massive early season test, they needed all of the momentum they could get before then.

Now going into that game, the confidence should be much higher after the way things went on Tuesday. South Carolina (2-1) had a good showing and rolled to a 80-54 win over Towson at Colonial Life Arena.

“Thought we had a tremendous team effort against a team that I think is going to win a lot of games,” head coach Lamont Paris said after the win. “Those are the kind of teams you want to play early on in the season to see what you’re made of and see where you are.”

How it happened

South Carolina got a great showing from its defense to start the night. The Gamecocks held the Tigers to 0-of-10 from three-point range before they hit their first triple with 6:41 left in the first half.

“We did try to make a concerted effort that the looks that they did get would be more challenged, a little more brushed,” Paris said. “There would be a little more uncertainty as to if they should shoot that shot. And then ultimately, doing that consistently helped play the numbers tend to work in your favor.”

With Towson struggling to find its shot in the early minutes, this allowed South Carolina to build an early lead, one it would hold onto the entire game after giving up the first point of the night on an early free throw.

The lead got up to as many as 20 with 16 seconds left in the first half before the Tigers knocked down a three going into the break. But the damage had already been done. South Carolina went into halftime shooting 62.5 percent and received contributions all over the floor.

The front court duo of Collin Murray-Boyles and Nick Pringle looked as advertised with each forward scoring 10 points in the first half. Jacobi Wright, back in the starting lineup for the second straight game, had eight points on 3-of-4 shooting at the break.

While there was a lot of scoring from the Gamecocks, most of their work came on the defensive end of the floor. They held Towson to just 33.3 percent shooting and 3-for-18 from deep in the first half with a handful of careless turnovers forced.

“We just came out very solid, played our roles with what coach wanted us to do,” Wright said. “We played a lot better one-on-one defense and finished our plays and rebounded today. It was a total team effort on defense.”

Things were much of the same in the early minutes of the second half with South Carolina building its lead back up to 20 points. But to Towson’s credit, the Tigers seemed to play a lot better after they came out of the locker room.

It didn’t help that the Gamecocks were playing a bit sloppy with five turnovers in the first eight minutes. But Towson was finding its way to free throw line a lot more and knocked down 6-of-9 shots in that same stretch.

The lead would go back up to 22, though, as South Carolina went on an 8-0 run over the next three minutes. Even with a wide margin, the team’s play wasn’t as strong as it was in the first half. Shots weren’t falling as consistently and the turnovers were now coming in bunches.

But it only made a tiny dent in a game that was already in hand. The Gamecocks got back on track with a 7-0 run to get the lead up to as much as 25 points.

The second half performance was nothing to write home about as they shot 39.3 percent from the field and 23.1 percent from three-point range. They also shot themselves in the foot with 11 turnovers and 16 overall in the game. From a bigger picture standpoint, though, it was a respectable effort with South Carolina shooting 50 percent for the game.

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Two observations

Much better opening start—These early games might not tell us a lot about South Carolina since it’s only faced lower tier teams. But a game like Tuesday could also serve as a nice momentum booster with the games getting tougher starting Saturday. Despite not playing flawless, the Gamecocks were able to do a lot of good in the first half and build a commanding lead that got up to as much as 20 points.

“It’s gotta be an every game mentality to come out and want to put our foot on the gas and go it,” Pringle said. “And it starts in practice. I mean, our help side defense has been great. Rebounding, making guys take one shot, it’s getting better by every game. We want to continue to build til the end of the season.”

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Newsflash: CMB is really good—In case you didn’t know, here’s your latest reminder. Murray-Boyles finished with a game-high 27 points on 9-of-12 shooting. He finished one rebound shy of his second consecutive double-double. It’s going to be interesting how Indiana tries to match up against him and tries to slow him down since no team has been able to do so yet.

Key stat

62.5 percent—It’s a good thing South Carolina shot as well as it did in the first half to create a big lead. Things weren’t as pretty after halftime with some sloppy play and missed shots. But because the Gamecocks started the night shooting 15-of-24 (62.5 percent) from the field, they were able to withstand anything Towson did in the second half.

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Turning point

With Towson still unable to buy a shot in the first half, South Carolina went on a 6-0 run around the midway point to build off an already double-digit point lead. The run started with an and one from Benjamin Bosmans-Verdonk and a three-pointer and layup from Wright.

Up next

South Carolina will travel to Bloomington, Indiana for a date with the No. 16 Indiana Hoosiers on Saturday. Tip-off is at 3 p.m. from Assembly Hall. The game can be streamed on Peacock.

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