South Carolina Basketball: 3 thumbs up, 3 thumbs down from Ole Miss victory

South Carolina basketball is now 20-3 and 8-2 in the SEC after a home win over the Ole Miss Rebels. The game was a wild ride as the Gamecocks were ahead for 38 minutes but saw a 17-point lead drop all the way to just 1 point before pulling things out in the end.

Collin Murray-Boyles was the best player on the court (though, Allen Flanigan and Matthew Murrell's offensive excellence challenged him in this one) as he scored 16 points, pulled down 9 rebounds, and blocked 2 shots, including a monstrous rejection of a dunk from 7'5" Jamarion Sharp.

Ta'Lon Cooper and Meechie Johnson orchestrated the offense beautifully, and Johnson was great in the drive-and-kick game, leading the team with 8 assists.

Though the numbers don't suggest it, Carolina played pretty good defense across the board (other than BJ Mack trying to defend the much taller Sharp). Allen Flanigan and Matthew Murrell made a ton of difficult midrange shots. The Gamecocks got really good low post defensive efforts from Collin Murray-Boyles and Josh Gray as the duo led a USC defense that forced Ole Miss into 3-10 shooting on layup attempts.

There were plenty of negatives for South Carolina basketball in this one (more on those later), but when all was said and done, the Gamecocks picked up a big win over a team that was nearly ranked this week in the AP poll.

If USC beats Vanderbilt on Saturday, and Auburn beats Alabama and Florida on Wednesday and Saturday, respectively, next Tuesday's game in Auburn between Lamont Paris and Bruce Pearl's teams could be a top-10 matchup.

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