South Carolina basketball: Gamecocks drop season opener to Liberty
By Jacob Elsey
South Carolina basketball fell to Liberty in its season opening matchup.
Frank Martin and the South Carolina basketball team opened up the 2020-21 season in the Hall of Fame Classic against Liberty Saturday afternoon, and the Gamecocks looked a little rusty in their first time on the floor.
South Carolina fell to the Flames by a score of 78-62, and failed to gain any momentum on the offensive or defensive side of the ball. South Carolina trailed 17-16 early in the first half before Liberty erupted for a 16-2 run, and the Flames never looked back.
Liberty used a sharp shooting performance to maintain that lead, as the Gamecocks never managed to cut the deficit to less than double digits. The Flames shot 11 of 26 from beyond the arc, while the Gamecocks were just 3 for 17.
Forward Kyle Rode led the Liberty attack, scoring 18 points, while four other Flames managed to notch double figures. AJ Lawson, Jermaine Couisnard, and Keyshawn Bryant all scored ten points or more, with Lawson leading the way, but it wasn’t enough to keep the Gamecocks in the game.
The story of the game was shooting, as South Carolina hit less than 40% of their attempts. Liberty, on the other hand, connected on 56% from the floor, which didn’t please South Carolina’s defensive minded head coach.
“All preseason I’ve been trying to figure out if we’re a lot better offensively (than last year) or we’re not very good defensively,” Martin said. “In practice our offense looks really good and we’re better offensively than what we showed today, especially in the first half. My questions privately have now been truthful to me. That means our defense is not as good as it needs to be yet and is something we need to get a lot better at.”
The Gamecocks will try to pick up the pieces on Sunday and salvage a win as they face Tulsa at 1:00 PM. The game will be televised on ESPN 2.