South Carolina Basketball: Gamecocks move to 6-0 after being Notre Dame in ACC/SEC Challenge

South Carolina Basketball vs. Notre Dame:
Statistics, Scoring, and Observations

Against a rebuilding Notre Dame team that is not expected to be very good this season, the Gamecocks struggled early but rebounded to outscore Notre Dame 31-20 the rest of the 1st half. The 2nd half saw South Carolina basketball separate themselves and win comfortably 65-53.

Here are the stats from the game:

STATS

Notre Dame

Points

Leader: Tae Davis with 15

Rebounds

Leader: Tae Davis with 8

Assists

Leader: Markus Burton with 5

Steals

Leader: Two players tied with 1

Blocks

Leader: Kebba Njie with 3

Other

Notre Dame shot just 32.7% from the floor and 28.6% from behind the arc

South Carolina

Points

Leader: Meechie Johnson with 29

Rebounds

Leader: Meechie Johnson and Ta’Lon Cooper with 5

Assists

Leader: Ta’Lon Cooper with 4

Steals

Leader: 5 players tied with 1

Blocks

Leader: 4 players tied with 1

Other

BJ Mack finished with 17 points; the Gamecocks shot just 38% from the field and 28% from 3-point land and were outrebounded 36-32 but still won comfortably; USC had just 8 turnovers for the game

BOX SCORE

OBSERVATIONS

• Starters: Ta’Lon Cooper-Meechie Johnson-Myles Stute-BJ Mack-Stephen Clark
  • Clark exited after just a couple minutes as Notre Dame spread out the Gamecock defense; USC couldn’t afford to play two true bigs against that style of offense, so Paris sat Clark. Carolina kept Myles Stute or Zach Davis in the game at the 4-spot most of the rest of the game.
  • With the smaller lineups, Josh Gray didn’t play at all in the 1st half.
• Carolina started off the game with 0 points in the first five minutes.
• Myles Stute really struggled in the 1st half on both ends of the floor. He was 0-3 shooting, had 2 fouls, and was a team worse -6 in +/-. He did not play much in the 2nd half.
• Meechie Johnson was the only efficient offensive Gamecock in the 1st half as he shot 5-8 (3-6 from 3) and made both of his free throw attempts.
• Without providing any scoring, Zach Davis had an impactful 1st half. Davis had 2 rebounds, 2 assists, and a steal while playing really nice defense across multiple positions. He led the team in +/- without scoring.
• The Gamecocks were really able to bother dynamic (but small) freshman guard Markus Burton. Burton had 4 turnovers and shot 1-6 in the 1st half.
• South Carolina basketball shot 80% from the free throw line early, making 8-10 shots. Notre Dame only got to the line for 4 attempts.
• The Gamecocks drew a lot of fouls on Notre Dame early in the 2nd half but then stopped trying to drive. After getting 4 fouls on the Irish in 2 minutes, they didn’t hit the bonus until near the 10:00 mark.
• BJ Mack started to be a better offensive engine in the 2nd half. He scored and distributed from both the low post and high post. Had his teammates made more shots, the Gamecock lead would have grown significantly.
• The Gamecocks weren’t shooting well but also weren’t passing well. 3/4 of the way through the game, USC had just 7 assists.
• After a slow start to the 2nd half, Meechie Johnson heated back up. He tied his career-high of 26 points with just under 8:00 to go in the game and finished with 29.
• Zach Davis continued being a menace on defense in the 2nd half.