Auburn surges past South Carolina and snaps Gamecocks’ win streak
Devan Cambridge began his takeoff a step inside the 3-point line. Within an instant, he was on the rim — and South Carolina’s win streak felt over.
The Gamecocks came to Auburn Arena on Wednesday seeking to build on impressive performances from the week before. Instead, USC was a losing bystander to a Tiger’s coming-out party.
Cambridge, a freshman with little fanfare, had a career night en route to Auburn’s 80-67 win.
Cambridge, who entered averaging just over three points a game, finished with 26, including a monster put-back slam in the second half that all but put a dagger in Frank Martin’s bunch.
USC dropped to 10-8 and 2-3 in the SEC while the 16th-ranked Tigers improved to 16-2 (4-2 SEC).
Auburn outscored Carolina, 32-20, over the final 14:44 to end its two-game losing streak and put a halt to the Gamecocks’ recent winning ways.
The Gamecocks showed signs of their victory formulas from last week — see Jermaine Cousinard taking over for spurts at a time and pouring in 16 points — but their defense struggled for stops. The Tigers’ 80 are the second-most against Carolina this season.
Cambridge was a big reason why.
The 6-foot-6 guard from Nashville nearly hit as many 3s Wednesday (six) than his season total (seven) entering the game.
“Give that young man credit,” said Carolina coach Frank Martin. “He was shooting the 3 at 20% for the year. He was on our scouting report. We said he was a capable 3-point shooter because he was shooting them, they just weren’t going in.
“They went in for him today. But then again, he got a lot of wide-open looks because he couldn’t keep our guards in front of us.”
Auburn’s starting backcourt of J’Von McCormick and Samir Doughty combined for 24 points and nine assists. Cambridge was the star, but his senior teammates made all the difference, Martin said.
“Their senior guards just took advantage of our guards,” Martin said. “They played at a different speed. We couldn’t keep them in front.”
The Tigers shot just under 52% in the second half. After South Carolina cut the lead to one on an A.J. Lawson jumper at the 14:45 mark, Auburn went on a 24-6 run that included 12 points from Cambridge.
“We knew he was going to come off the bench and hit some 3s,” said Justin Minaya, who had 14 points and seven boards for USC. “We didn’t do a great job at closing out on him. He hit more shots today. Credit to to him.”
Auburn fittingly closed the first half on an 8-2 run to take a 39-31 lead at intermission. The opening 20 minutes was full of these swings.
The Tigers entered Wednesday as one of the SEC’s worst shooting teams since conference play began. They looked the part early as South Carolina jumped out to a 13-6 advantage. Auburn was 1 for its first 10 and 4 for its first 16 from the field. But when the Gamecocks, plagued by turnovers, couldn’t create a large enough cushion, Auburn caught fire.
The Tigers made four of their five first half 3s in a two-minute span, including a banked-in bomb from Cambridge. It was all part of a 21-5 run that put AU up 29-20 with 4:24 left, cueing a USC mini-rally — authored by Couisnard — that had the game tied at the 2:33 mark.
And one: Wildens Leveque started in place of the injured Keyshawn Bryant and gave the Gamecocks a spark from the tip. The big man from Massachusetts, who hadn’t been in the opening lineup since Dec. 8, swatted Auburn’s Austin Wiley on the Tigers’ opening possession. He had four points, two rebounds, two steals and that swat in eight early minutes.
Personal foul: South Carolina was held to below 10 free throw attempts for a second straight game.
NEXT
What: Vanderbilt at South Carolina
When: 8 p.m. Saturday
Where: Colonial Life Arena
TV: SEC Network
Radio: 107.5 The Game in the Columbia area
Auburn vs South Carolina basketball box score
SOUTH CAROLINA (10-8): Lawson 4-8 2-2 11, Kotsar 3-8 0-0 6, Minaya 6-12 0-0 14, Couisnard 7-14 1-5 16, Bolden 4-12 0-0 10, McCreary 2-2 0-0 4, Moss 1-3 0-0 2, Leveque 2-2 0-2 4, Frink 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 29-61 3-9 67.
AUBURN (16-2): Okoro 3-7 2-2 8, Doughty 3-10 4-4 11, McCormick 5-12 2-3 13, Purifoy 0-4 4-4 4, Cambridge 10-14 0-2 26, McLemore 1-2 2-2 4, Wiley 1-4 4-4 6, Johnson 2-3 0-0 6, Flanigan 1-2 0-0 2. Totals 26-58 18-21 80.
Halftime—Auburn 39-31. 3-Point Goals—South Carolina 6-21 (Bolden 2-5, Minaya 2-7, Lawson 1-3, Couisnard 1-5, Moss 0-1), Auburn 10-28 (Cambridge 6-9, Johnson 2-3, McCormick 1-4, Doughty 1-5, Flanigan 0-1, McLemore 0-1, Okoro 0-1, Purifoy 0-4). Rebounds—South Carolina 31 (Kotsar 8), Auburn 36 (Wiley 8). Assists—South Carolina 16 (Kotsar 5), Auburn 17 (Okoro 7). Total Fouls—South Carolina 17, Auburn 16.
This story was originally published January 22, 2020 at 8:56 PM.
