South Carolina rebounds with better effort, but falls in close game to Northern Iowa
Given a second crack in Mexico, South Carolina turned in a much better effort.
It just didn’t add up to a win.
Northern Iowa was better down the stretch and came out on top, 78-72, of a nip and tuck affair Wednesday in the consolation round of the Cancun Classic.
South Carolina dropped to 4-3 while UNI improved to 7-1.
“At the end of the day,” USC coach Frank Martin told the Gamecock Sports Network, “we’re right there to go win a game against a high-caliber opponent and we can’t make a shot coming down the stretch.”
The Gamecocks opened this mini-tournament with a dud. South Carolina never led and trailed by as many as 25 en route to a 70-47 loss to Wichita State.
USC made it clear early and often such a performance wouldn’t be repeated. A Jair Bolden 3-pointer with 16:02 left in the first half gave the Gamecocks their first lead in Mexico. A Bolden 3 in the second half gave USC another lead with 10:44 left in the game.
These teams went back and forth from there as the game finished with over 20 lead changes.
Bolden and A.J. Lawson — with a touch of Maik Kotsar — carried South Carolina while Northern Iowa countered with A.J. Green and Trae Berhow. A Green 3 put the Panthers up 70-66 with 3:31 left. The Gamecocks responded with a series of empty possessions — including a five-second count on an attempted in-bounds pass — until Jermaine Couisnard and Lawson hit consecutive transition buckets to make it 72-70, UNI, with 1:01 left.
Green and Kotsar then traded jumpers to get it back to a two-point game with 12.7 seconds left, but Green hit four straight free throws to seal the win.
Green had a game-high 26 points. Lawson had 20 for South Carolina while Kotsar added 12 and Bolden had 11. The Gamecocks shot a season-best 50% from the floor.
“I thought we played well enough to win today,” Martin said.
South Carolina led nine different times in the first half, but never by more than five points. After an Alanzo Frink jumper put the Gamecocks up 17-12 with 13:55 left, the Panthers responded with an 8-0 run.
The UNI advantage got to as many as 11 before the Gamecocks got to within seven at the break as both teams were shooting over 50% from the floor.
Northern Iowa played the late game Tuesday and suffered its first loss of the season after blowing a 15-point second half lead to West Virginia.
And one: After hardly impacting the Wichita State game (see five points in 20 minutes), Lawson looked more like the player some have projected to be an NBA draft pick this summer.
Personal foul: South Carolina continues to be an adventure at the free throw line. The Gamecocks entered 324th — out of 350 — nationally at the stripe, making just over 60 percent of their attempts. It missed four in a row to begin Wednesday’s game and finished five of 11.
Tip-in: The Gamecocks had as many 3-pointers in the first five minutes of Wednesday’s game (three) as it had for the entire game Tuesday. It finished seven of 19 from deep.
NEXT
Who: George Washington at South Carolina
When: 2 p.m. Sunday
Where: Colonial Life Arena
TV: SEC Network Plus
This story was originally published November 27, 2019 at 8:02 PM.
