How South Carolina MBB survived stiff home test from Charleston Southern

Meechie Johnson watched as a Charleston Southern pass flew by and into the scorers table. Exhale — that was a needed turnover. The South Carolina men’s basketball team needed the ball back to make it a two-score game against the Buccaneers.

Three minutes later, Johnson was tripped up and given three free throws. He hit them all. Another exhale.

Despite trading leads 12 times Saturday, USC survived Charleston Southern 73-69 at Colonial Life Arena in the first of four home games to close out the nonconference schedule.

The Gamecocks improved to 9-1 with the win. The Buccaneers (3-7) were playing their third game under interim head coach Saah Nimley.

Big man basketball

For a team that relies heavily on its starting guards to score, South Carolina’s offense came from the biggest players on the court.

BJ Mack still bolstered the heaviest load, finishing with yet another double-digit night to lead the Gamecocks. But Collin Murray-Boyles, Myles Stute and Benjamin Bosmans-Verdonk combined for 20 points against Charleston Southern.

Bosmans-Verdonk’s seven points were his season-high, and Murray-Boyles’ seven points were a career-high. Both had energizing dunks to surpassed their previous season- and career-highs, too.

“I want to be a spark whenever I can,” Bosmans-Verdonk said. “I guess that’s kind of my role, and I embrace it.”

Johnson finished the game with 15 points, just one behind Mack. In a physical game like this one, Mack, Bosmans-Verdonk and Murray-Boyles’ toughness was the separation USC searched for all night.

Post-exam week slump

The opening 20 minutes felt eerily similar to how South Carolina fared against VMI on Nov. 13 — a bit lackluster with a sprinkle of sloppy plays. Charleston Southern had some extra pep in its step throughout the first half, keeping it a one-score game at halftime (39-36 USC).

The Gamecocks were creating some chaos on defense, but they couldn’t get a jump ball or a clean turnover. They passed the ball fine, but weren’t moving around a lot. Paris screamed at his team to “cut around” loud enough to be heard while USC was inbounding and on offense.

Still, USC had done enough for 65% shooting from the field overall and 50% from 3-point range by halftime. It was enough to hold onto the lead, just not extend it. South Carolina had 14 offensive rebounds in the second half, scoring 19 second chance points in the win.

“We made an emphasis going into the game of trying to dominate them on the boards,” Mack said of the offensive rebounds. “So that was one of the challenges for us, and we just didn’t get the job done in the first half.”

Charleston Southern would not let up. Taje’ Kelly led the game with 22 points, and the Buccaneers had seven 3-pointers in the game.

“I thought they made some difficult shots,” Paris said. “We certainly made some defensive mistakes ... but they had a couple guys make shots, and timely shots, consistently over the 40 minutes.”

The finals week break of sorts forced USC to play its third-straight game relying on clutch free throws, rebounds and late offensive possessions. It’s been a different player who’s stepped up during these recent dogfights. Ta’Lon Cooper had the final clutch free throws on Saturday, getting fouled just seconds to go and putting the game to its final score.

Powered by little runs

Every coach and player says it every game — basketball is a game of runs. South Carolina didn’t have any overwhelmingly large runs against the Buccaneers, but the smaller ones seemed to do the trick.

A few 6-0 spurts or going 4-for-4 from the field helped keep Charleston Southern from leading by more than one score. The Buccaneers’ defense didn’t make it easy for South Carolina to put the game away, and it excelled at stalling Johnson for the majority of the first half.

“We didn’t really notice it throughout the game, but looking back on it now, it was a lot of short runs,” Mack said. “But to be able to build that momentum up, it’s kind of hard, especially when they’re ready to play.”

Charleston Southern’s biggest advantage was having seven blocks to USC’s none. The Gamecocks were turned away four times by halftime, and USC was getting increasingly frustrated by those blocked shots.

“They’ve been known to block some shots,” Paris said. “They’ve got good length, and a couple other guys were athletic down there. And when you get to the basket, you’ve got to make a split-second decision when you’re about to take off to shoot the ball.”

It could’ve been a disastrous night, particularly for USC’s postseason resume. Instead, they can exhale. That wasn’t the case, and the now 9-1 Gamecocks can forget about their Saturday night struggles and move on.

Other notable stats

• Mack’s 16 points marked his 70th career game scoring double digits and ninth at South Carolina.

• Morris Ugusuk led USC with a career-high five assists. It was the first time he’s led the Gamecocks in the category this year.

• South Carolina announced over 7,000 hot dogs, 6,000 popcorn buckets and 8,500 soft drinks were given away in Saturday’s doubleheader with the women’s team. The free concessions promotion lasts through the end of USC men’s nonconference schedule.

Next four games

• Dec. 19 vs. Winthrop, 7 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)

• Dec. 22 vs. Elon, 6 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)
  
  

• Dec. 30 vs. Florida A&M, 2 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)
  
  

• Jan. 6 vs. Mississippi State, Noon (CBS)