Gamecocks fall behind early, can’t rally on the road vs. Missouri
Piece by piece, the South Carolina men’s basketball team has built itself back up after three separate COVID-19 shutdowns.
But as the Gamecocks displayed Tuesday night at Missouri, they’re still figuring out how those pieces gel together.
The Gamecocks fell to No. 19 Missouri, 81-70, in head coach Frank Martin’s return from his second case of COVID-19. It’s a second consecutive road loss for the Gamecocks, who lost 85-80 at LSU on Saturday with assistant Bruce Shingler as the acting head coach.
“Obviously, it’s hard to go on the road and beat the (19th) ranked team when your defense was as bad as ours was today,” Martin said. “We played a little harder, for lack of better word, in the second half. But then all we did was foul in the second half.
“And then offensively, if you’re not going to defend, you better make shots.”
The Gamecocks did neither. Offensively, they shot just 39% from the field, 42% from the free-throw line and 29% from behind the arc. Missouri, meanwhile, led for 39 of the game’s 40 minutes and shot a scorching-hot 61% in the first half before salting the game away at the free-throw line in the second half.
Shingler joked earlier in the week that the Gamecocks were on a “mini NBA schedule” with their quick turnaround between road trips. They arrived in Columbia at 2 a.m. Sunday morning, practiced, then flew to Missouri the next day.
The Gamecocks had only been able to practice at limited intensity last week, starting at 25% and only ramping up to 100% just before Saturday’s LSU game.
That lack of consistent practice and basketball conditioning reared its head early at Missouri on Tuesday, but Martin refused to use it as an excuse.
“We’ve been dealt a certain hand, and it’s up to us to deal with it and just take advantage of the opportunities that we’ve got,” Martin said.
“... If we’re going to sit around and worry about the fact that we didn’t practice much the last seven weeks, we’re gonna keep losing. We created a safety net to accept losing, and that’s not part of my DNA. It’s not the way I go about things, and it’s definitely not the way I want our team to talk and think.”
3 Observations from USC-Mizzou
1. Backcourt woes
Guard play is a strength for this Gamecocks team. Usually.
A.J. Lawson and Jermaine Couisnard entered Tuesday’s contest as South Carolina’s two leading scorers, at 18.5 and 12.5 points per game, respectively. And since the Gamecocks returned from their COVID-19 pause against Florida A&M on Jan. 2, Martin has employed a three-guard starting lineup with senior Seventh Woods playing point guard.
Those guards typically drive the offense, but Tuesday night, they struggled to find any sort of rhythm.
Surprisingly, after a career-high 30-point game followed by a 22-point game, Lawson went scoreless in the first half, shooting 0 for 5 from the field and missing all four of his 3-point attempts.. Meanwhile, Couisnard and Woods — the primary ball-handlers — combined for six turnovers and three points in the first half.
Martin said, simply, “we’re just not good at point guard right now,” citing a passive play style as one of the key issues.
Missouri plays a physical brand of perimeter offense, and Martin said his guards didn’t handle that contact well. Lawson (5 points) was 2 for 9 from the field and Cousinard (6 points) was 2 for 12. They combined to go 2 for 12 from the 3-point line.
“We need those two guys, and it’s not calling players out; it’s just the bottom line,” Martin said. “... If A.J. Lawson and Jermaine Couisnard play well, it gives us a chance to win. If they don’t, it’s gonna be a struggle.”
2. Anderson puts up career game
Sophomore forward Trey Anderson played in just eight games during his freshman season, and before Tuesday he had only averaged 8 minutes a game this year.
But with the USC starting five unable to click early, Anderson seized his opportunity off the bench and reached double-digit points for the first time in his college career.
The 6-foot-6 wing led the Gamecocks with 9 first-half points, keeping the team within striking distance at halftime. For the game, he made 7 of 9 field-goal attempts and added two 3-pointers for 17 points.
“I feel like pretty much the whole game I had a mismatch,” Anderson said. “I had a bigger defender on me, so I was using that to my advantage.”
Martin said that Anderson showed signs of growth at the end of last season but that it’s taken time to find the right role for him on the court.
“When the season ended, one thing I felt I did a poor job is trying to figure out a way to utilize him to help us,” Martin said. “And then this year started, and I should have moved him to the four spot from the beginning of the year but I kind of left him out at the three.
“... We’ve made a decision to play four perimeter guys as much as possible right now. And so he’s got a chance to play. Part of it was lack of personnel, and to his credit, he’s played well every time we throw them out there. So now that grows confidence in us.”
3. Bryant’s surge continues
Coming off a career-high 26-point, four-block effort in his first game since Dec. 5, Keyshawn Bryant stayed hot at Missouri, putting up a team-high 19 points.
Though he didn’t start, Bryant was one of the first men off the bench for the Gamecocks and provided a much-needed jolt with an electrifying, highlight-worthy dunk. He also showed an improved shooting touch by sinking a couple of step-back mid-range jumpers.
Bryant got off to a slow start to the season and saw limited minutes in USC’s second and third games before the team’s initial COVID-19 pause.
But now that Bryant has pieced together back-to-back strong performances, it’s possible he’s worked his back into the starting five, especially if Martin decides to move away from the three-guard lineup. Either way, Martin said Bryant will play starter’s minutes.
“Ever since he got back into practice and started moving around and stuff he’s continued to play better and better,” Martin said. “His voice is probably one of the loudest voices on the team right now, from an understanding and demanding that people do certain things. And we need him to keep playing at a high level.”
Next USC basketball game
Who: South Carolina (3-4, 1-2 SEC) vs. Auburn (9-4, 2-4)
Where: Colonial Life Arena
When: 7 p.m. Wednesday
Watch: ESPN2
This story was originally published January 19, 2021 at 9:09 PM.
