Without big men, hoops win looks like big mess

Admission was free to the USC men’s basketball team’s exhibition game on Friday night. If the announced crowd of 3,053 was looking for an impressive blowout, it got it’s money’s worth.

New coach Darrin Horn granted that it wasn’t “really pretty.” But he was pleased with the effort his team showed in a 75-55 victory Division II Kentucky Wesleyan, which in the second half scored 16 consecutive points and trailed by one.

It took a second-half surge from star guard Devan Downey, who scored 16 of his 19 points in the second half.

“The one thing we promised people was it wouldn’t be boring,” Horn said.

There were some mitigating circumstances for the Gamecocks. They were playing without their two best big men, with Mike Holmes serving a one-game suspension, and Sam Muldrow out indefinitely with academic issues.

That led to a less-than-impressive 44-41 rebounding advantage on Kentucky Wesleyan, whose tallest player is 6-foot-7.

But South Carolina also struggled from beyond the 3-point arc, going 6-for-27. That problem appeared to be a simple issue of just not hitting open shots.

“It wasn’t falling the way we wanted tonight, but we’re gonna keep taking those same shots. Hopefully we’ll make them next time,” said senior guard Zam Fredrick, who had 12 points. “But like I said, the shots were wide-open shots, uncontested. We made a few, we missed more than a few.”

The team also narrowly averted a serious injury to one of its best players, forward Dominique Archie. The junior suffered a bruised left shoulder late in the game, but team athletic trainer Mark Rodger, through a team spokesman, called it “nothing serious.”

The Gamecocks open their season Friday against Jacksonville State.

Horn said the main goal for the exhibition game was to see great effort. So on that count, he was pleased.

At its core, Horn’s system is about up-tempo offense and pressure defense. The latter went well, as USC forced 14 turnovers, had six steals and held Kentucky Wesleyan to 35 percent field goal shooting.

The offense, however, was quite sloppy at times. The Gamecocks committed 12 turnovers, and Horn felt they settled too quickly for 3-pointers.

“Any time you’re starting a new system, you can’t expect everything to be perfect,” Downey said. “It was our first time actually in a real game, trying coach Horn’s system. Some was good, some was bad, I’m not disappointed.

“I know everyone’s trying to say, exhibition game, you’re supposed to blow them out by 50. But everything’s new to us, everything out there tonight was new. It’s just gonna take us some time.”

Reach Emerson at (803) 771-8676.