South Carolina grinds out crucial overtime win against UGA to clinch winning season
When the South Carolina men’s basketball team took its trip to Athens, Georgia earlier this month, it didn’t catch much bull or dog from UGA that night.
On Wednesday evening in Columbia, the Gamecocks got all they could handle, all the way down to the final possession.
The proceedings were hardly pretty, but the outcome was what South Carolina needed. In a grinding game short on aesthetics, the Gamecocks won 94-90 in overtime to guarantee a winning season and keep alive hopes of 20 wins before the SEC Tournament.
Things weren’t secured until 5-foot-10 Bulldogs point guard Sahvir Wheeler committed a charge with 1.4 seconds to go in the extra period.
“That’s a real good win,” Gamecocks coach Frank Martin said. “They’re playing with a lot of confidence.
“Really happy with our guys. We played really hard on defense but made some really bad mistakes defensively, and then give them credit.”
Keyshawn Bryant’s putback with 58 seconds left in OT gave South Carolina (17-11, 9-6 SEC) its final lead. After a 1-for-2 trip to the line from UGA (14-14, 4-11), Jermaine Couisnard’s free throws should have sealed it. But an inbounds turnover gave the Bulldogs a last chance — after hitting a lay-up and USC hitting only one free throw, the visitors came away empty-handed.
South Carolina had a chance at the go-ahead bucket in regulation, but Couisnard couldn’t match the magic of his game-winner against Kentucky. It came after a frantic few minutes when missed free throws stung USC and the game was tied in the final two minutes.
South Carolina finished 23 for 37 from the charity stripe.
Martin had said at the start of the week that forward/center Alanzo Frink ran into issues when his aggression was lacking. He seemed to deliver on that front Wednesday, scoring 18 in the first 25 minutes, blowing past his previous career high of 12. He also drew at least three fouls on made baskets on the way to 22 in regulation.
“We don’t have the size, obviously,” Bulldogs coach Tom Crean said of his team’s ability to control USC’s frontcourt. “One of the biggest things for us is trying to front the post. But we’ve got to get better ball pressure and we’ve got to get better weakside help.”
Georgia’s offense, which had 20 points in the first half of the first meeting, found some traction collapsing the Gamecocks defense and generating corner 3s. Those long shots played a key role in the hosts trailing at halftime despite shooting 50 percent. Future NBA lottery pick Anthony Edwards led the Bulldogs with 36 points.
“He’s a good player, give him credit,” Bryant said. “The gameplan with him was just, he’s gonna take tough shots. He’s gonna hit tough shots. We’re just going to have to deal with it as long as we’re in his space to contest every time he takes a shot.”
To call the early play sloppy might not do it justice. It was not simply a preponderance of turnovers, but an overarching number of loose and tipped balls that either led to them or sometimes didn’t.
It didn’t help the hosts how Couisnard, the team’s starting point guard, was limited to three minutes in the first 20 because of foul trouble. It didn’t help that South Carolina’s guards connected on only four of their first 18 shots.
The Gamecocks managed to hang in because several of their forwards, Frink and Jalyn McCreary, are the kind whose skillsets often thrive when the game is flow and scramble, rather than highly structured. McCreary delivered eight of his team’s first 19 points and Frink had five more.
The win was a crucial one as USC looks to carve out some kind postseason trip. Getting above .500 gives them a solid chance at the NIT, while they project to be favored in two of the next three games. Martin said at the start of the week he felt his team had enough high-end victories for NCAA tournament consideration, but they needed more raw wins.
His players took advantage of the opportunity for that Wednesday, showing a little dog down the stretch.
“I’m willing to bet that we’ve got more quality wins than 99% of the teams on whatever bubble,” Martin said. “So we just gotta keep winning. We can’t worry about quality wins. We’ve got quality wins. We’re in the SEC. There’s three more quality ones in front of us.”
NEXT
What: South Carolina at Alabama
When: 8:30 p.m. Saturday
Where: Coleman Coliseum
TV: SEC Network
Radio: 107.5 The Game in Columbia area
Box score
GEORGIA (14-14): Camara 3-4 3-4 10, Hammonds 4-9 4-4 13, Edwards 11-22 10-12 36, Harris 1-4 2-3 4, Wheeler 2-8 3-4 7, Gresham 2-5 1-2 6, Peake 1-3 1-2 3, Crump 1-5 0-0 3, Fagan 2-5 0-1 4, Brown 1-2 2-2 4. Totals 28-67 26-34 90.
SOUTH CAROLINA (17-11): Bryant 6-14 4-5 16, Frink 8-10 6-9 22, Kotsar 8-14 3-4 19, Couisnard 3-7 6-8 13, Lawson 2-9 4-10 10, Bolden 0-5 0-0 0, Moss 1-6 0-0 2, McCreary 5-5 0-1 10, Hannibal 0-0 0-0 0, Leveque 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 34-71 23-37 94.
Halftime—Georgia 42-40. 3-Point Goals—Georgia 8-29 (Edwards 4-11, Camara 1-1, Hammonds 1-2, Gresham 1-4, Crump 1-5, Wheeler 0-1, Peake 0-2, Harris 0-3), South Carolina 3-16 (Lawson 2-7, Couisnard 1-4, Moss 0-2, Bolden 0-3). Fouled Out—Camara, Hammonds, Harris, Wheeler, Frink, Lawson. Rebounds—Georgia 40 (Hammonds 9), South Carolina 40 (Bryant, Kotsar 10). Assists—Georgia 13 (Edwards 4), South Carolina 22 (Kotsar, Couisnard, Lawson, Moss 4). Total Fouls—Georgia 30, South Carolina 26. A—11,613 (18,000).
This story was originally published February 26, 2020 at 9:05 PM.
