South Carolina Basketball: Gamecocks overcome ugly play to beat VMI, move to 3-0

South Carolina Basketball vs. VMI:
Statistics, Scoring, and Observations

Lamont Paris’ South Carolina basketball team had an up-and-down game against VMI but did enough to stay undefeated and push the Gamecocks’ record to 3-0.

Here are the stats from the game.

STATS

VMI

Points

Leader: DJ Nussbaum with 14

Rebounds

Leader: Taeshaud Jackson with 11

Assists

Leader: Brennan Watkins and Tyran Cook with 3 each

Steals

Leader: Tyran Cook with 3

Blocks

Leader: Stephen Olowoniyi with 2

Other

Keydet leading scorer Brennan Watkins just scored 6 points on 1-7 shooting

South Carolina

Points

Leader: BJ Mack with 17

Rebounds

Leader: BJ Mack with 13

Assists

Leader: Ta’Lon Cooper with 7

Steals

Leader: BJ Mack with 3

Blocks

Leader: BJ Mack, Stephen Clark, and Myles Stute with 1 each

Other

Myles Stute shot just 1-4 from 3 but still scored 10 points, grabbed 5 rebounds, dished 3 assists, and added a steal and block; Meechie Johnson shot 4-16; Benjamin Bosmans-Verdonk had 8 rebounds in 14 minutes and was in position to get a few more but lost the handle on the ball; South Carolina basketball shot just 35% from the field and 30% from behind the arc

BOX SCORE

OBSERVATIONS

• Starters: Ta’Lon Cooper-Meechie Johnson-Myles Stute-BJ Mack-Stephen Clark
  • Zach Davis and Ebrima Dibba missed the game. Josh Gray was back after missing the last game with an illness.
    • With Davis and Dibba out, Morris Ugusuk and Eli Sparkman played a lot of minutes.
• The Gamecocks struggled to put the ball in the basket early. Other than a hot stretch near the end of the 1st half, they struggled to score the whole game. A lot of offensive rebounds and free throw opportunities padded the scoring numbers, making the points on the scoreboard a much more respectable number.
• Carolina was really loose with the basketball early on, as well. Sloppy ball handling and unwise passes should have led to a lot more than the 5 turnovers they committed in the 1st half. Against a better team than VMI, that type of play would have been a bigger issue.
• Meechie Johnson sparked the Gamecock run that allowed Carolina to retake the lead in the 1st half. He had a 3-pointer, 2 free throws, a layup, and a steal in about three minutes of game clock.
• Coach Paris played a really small lineup for a stretch that had guards Meechie Johnson, Morris Ugusuk, and Eli Sparkman on the floor at the same time.
• VMI intentionally left Josh Gray when he wasn’t right by the basket. The Gamecock big man had no confidence in his ability to put the ball on the floor and just waited until he could pass the ball away. He was removed quickly and did not return.
• Stephen Clark struggled again until he made an open 3 near the end of the 1st half. Before that, he had 3 fouls, 1 turnover, and several near turnovers. He dropped at least 3 easy rebounds in the game and missed 3 layups (2 that were relatively uncontested).
• BJ Mack had his best rebounding effort. He had 7 boards in the 1st half and finished the game with 13. He was also active defensively. Though he is not as quick as most of his teammates, he played with a solid effort and smartly stepped into several passing lanes.
• Unfortunately, only Mack did well as a rebounder in the 1st half. Benjamin Bosmans-Verdonk gave a lot of effort, as usual, but he couldn’t hang on to the ball on several occasions, and the rest of the Gamecocks were out-hustled more often than not. BBV was much better in the 2nd half as he and Mack carried the rebounding load.
• The 1st half saw the Gamecocks struggle to play good team defense. Rotations, backside help, and communication were all lacking.
• He wasn’t converting and making shots efficiently, but Meechie Johnson was extremely active on offense for most of the game. The effort and hustle from #5 was very high.
• Jacobi Wright seemed out of sorts for a while as he couldn’t get much going. He was better later in the game as he hit two 3-pointers in the last 14 minutes of the game.
• Myles Stute didn’t have his best game shooting the basketball but managed to contribute in other ways. He scored by getting to the free throw line, rebounded decently well (5), and added 3 assists, 1 steal, and 1 block.
• Frankly, the game was ugly. VMI isn’t good, so the Gamecocks got away with playing poorly for most of the night. They will need to clean that up moving forward.
• The best thing the Gamecocks did in this one was attack the offensive glass. USC grabbed 21 offensive boards, though they only scored 12 second-chance points.