Gamecocks drop DePaul behind big night from Kacinas

It was another career night for another South Carolina big man.

One game after fellow Lithuanian countryman and senior Laimonas Chatkevicius scored a career-high 27 points, Mindaugas Kacinas set a career-high with 23 points in the Gamecocks’ 76-61 win over DePaul in the first round of the Paradise Jam.

The win improved USC to 3-0, matching the best start of the Frank Martin era, and put the Gamecocks into a 9 p.m. matchup with Hofstra on Sunday in the winner’s bracket. The Pride were a surprise winner over Florida State.

USC hasn’t been 4-0 since 2009-10.

The Gamecocks began hot, working their preferred offense of going inside. Chatkevicius hit the game’s first points and USC shot to a 9-3 start.

DePaul (1-2) tied the game at 16 with its zone defense cutting off the Gamecocks’ posts, but USC quickly responded. Kacinas and Duane Notice took over, leading a stretch of five made field goals among USC’s final six attempts. Notice bottomed a 3-pointer for a 37-28 halftime advantage.

USC ballooned the lead to 16, but gave up eight straight points with less than eight minutes to go. Freshman P.J. Dozier stole the ball and dunked, and then Kacinas got another steal which lead to a foul. The Gamecocks controlled the game from there.

Blue Demons leading scorer Myke Henry (16.5 points per game) was scoreless in the first half and finished with six. Darrick Wood scored 14 points for DePaul, which lost for the 36th time in its last 43 road and neutral-site games. Wood had five points in a 14-3 run over a 2  1/2 minute spurt after halftime that got the Blue Demons within 56-51. But DePaul managed only one field goal in the next four-plus minutes and couldn’t recover.

This story was originally published November 20, 2015 at 8:33 PM.