What we learned from South Carolina MBB’s exhibition game win over Wooster
South Carolina men’s basketball beat College of Wooster, 86-60, on Wednesday night in a preseason exhibition at Colonial Life Arena.
After a Fighting Scots run early in the second half that cut the USC lead to 2 points, the Gamecocks responded with a 24-6 stretch and pulled away.
“I thought we were lethargic and generally careless in a lot of ways,” USC coach Lamont Paris said. “So in that timeout, we talked about energy. I brought in some new guys in that timeout, and our energy was better.”
Sophomore Collin Murray-Boyles and redshirt freshman Arden Conyers led the way for USC. Murray-Boyles notched a double-double with 19 points and 11 rebounds, while Conyers had 16 points on 6-of-7 shooting. Freshman Cam Scott also added 16 points and six rebounds.
South Carolina hosts North Florida on Monday to open the regular season.
Here are three observations from the exhibition win over Wooster, a Division III school from Ohio and Paris’ alma mater:
Young players shine
The Gamecocks got their biggest point production from three hometown players.
Paris expected Murray-Boyles (A.C. Flora) to be a primary target on scouting reports this season, but that didn’t deter the 6-foot-8 sophomore. He scored 14 points and grabbed seven rebounds by halftime, opening the game with a powerful dunk off a feed from Jamarii Thomas.
Murray-Boyles scored often on second-chance points from his five offensive rebounds, including a dominant putback dunk during a first-half 10-0 run. Although he missed his only two 3-point attempts, he excelled inside.
However, Scott (Lexington) didn’t have any problem with his jumper from distance in his first college action. He knocked down three 3-pointers in the first half, as part of his 10 points and three rebounds before intermission.
“Definitely, it was some butterflies,” Scott said. “... But it’s the same place to play. So, I was really just amped up to play. I felt real good at warm-ups.
“I felt like the coaching staff and my teammates put me in a good position where I didn’t really have any nerves when I stepped on the court. He told me to go out there, play with confidence and I felt like I did just that.”
Conyers (Westwood) did his damage in the second half, with 13 of his 16 points after the break to lift the team’s offense when it stalled early in the period.
“I’m gonna always be aggressive, no matter what part of the game it is,” Conyers said.
What normally works ... didn’t
Known for quick ball movement and perimeter shooting under Paris, South Carolina struggled in both areas Wednesday. The Gamecocks committed 10 first-half turnovers, many on forced passes to the middle or losing the ball on drives. They finished with 18 turnovers.
“We were turning the ball over against a team that isn’t known for their full-court pressure,” Paris said. “... We had some careless turnovers.”
Shooting from deep was also inconsistent. USC missed its first three attempts until Scott and Wright came off the bench to hit 3s, but the team then missed its next three.
Paris said the shot selection wasn’t great, but there were open looks due to Wooster’s strategy. They crowded the paint to take away the interior, and that left openings on the perimeter.
Overall, South Carolina shot 11-of-36 (30.5%) from beyond the arc, with Scott and Conyers accounting for most of the makes (7-of-13); without them, the team shot just 4-of-23 from 3-point range.
Can’t get stops
Each time USC gained a lead, Wooster responded. South Carolina struggled to sustain defensive pressure, allowing the Fighting Scots to open the second half with a 12-2 run and narrow the gap to 46-44.
Wooster frequently scored at the rim and knocked down open 3s, especially in the first half, exposing lapses in the Gamecocks’ defensive intensity.
“I think some of them were correctable things, and then a couple times they hit a shot here or there,” Paris said of the team’s defensive breakdowns. “... Nobody ever pitched a shutout in this game in the modern era.”
“A lot of it was just not ready to defend guys, and maybe some of it was because they thought they’d be able to do it easier because we were better physically,” Paris continued. “So it was a good lesson for some of those guys.”
Odds and ends
- Zach Davis had two steals early in the game, one leading to a break away slam.
- Other newcomers’ performances: Nick Pringle had six points and four rebounds; Thomas finished with one point and two assists. ... Paris said
Next four South Carolina MBB games
- Nov. 4: vs. North Florida, 7 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)
- Nov. 8: vs. SC State, 7 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)
- Nov. 12: vs. Towson, 7 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)
- Nov. 16: at Indiana, 3 p.m. (Peacock)
This story was originally published October 30, 2024 at 8:50 PM.
