South Carolina basketball fans were a little more nervous than they would have liked this week. After two bad losses last week, the Gamecocks had five games left on the schedule, and all five have a chance to be considered Quad-1 opportunities. Tough games are needed for a team's NCAA Tournament resume, but with the Gamecocks scuffling a bit, some wondered if they were in danger of missing out on the Big Dance.
Those worries can be forgotten.
On Saturday, a road game against Ole Miss stood between the Gamecocks and getting back in the win column. Lamont Paris' team, even without wing Myles Stute who injured his knee at practice during the week, handled the Rebels with relative ease, controlling the game almost the entire 40 minutes and winning 72-59.
The shooting efficiency discrepency was stark: South Carolina basketball shot 44% from the field and 47% from behind the 3-point arc (despite getting blocked 11 times), while Ole Miss managed to hit just 33% of their attempts from the floor and a measly 19% from outside.
Other than some early offensive rebounds, Carolina dominated the rebounding battle, too. With four different players snatching at least five boards, the Gamecocks outrebounded the Rebels 44-34. Zach Davis set a career-high with 9.
Speaking of Zach Davis career-high numbers, the sophomore also scored 14 points, the most he has ever scored in garnet and black. He played a good game but took an ugly elbow to the head from Ole Miss guard Allen Flanigan. Flanigan was ejected (and likely will be suspended), but Davis was able to stay in the game.
After a slow start, BJ Mack led the team in scoring with 17 after scoring 14 in the 2nd half. Ta'Lon Cooper had a vintage Ta'Lon Cooper game with 9 points, 7 rebounds, and 6 assists. Meechie Johnson struggled with his efficiency (1-11 shooting), but he was hurt by what felt like a lot of missed calls that didn't go his way.
In the end, Carolina won big in a road SEC game against a team with NCAA Tournament hopes. They are now 22-5 and 10-4 in the SEC.
South Carolina Basketball vs. Ole Miss Rebels
Thumbs Up 1: Playing Gamecock Basketball
Over the past several games (not just in the two losses), Lamont Paris' team has abandoned "Gamecock basketball" for long stretches of time. Carolina is built on slowing the game down, playing good defense, taking smart shots, limiting turnovers, and being tough as rebounders. All of that showed on Saturday against Ole Miss.
USC outrebounded their opponent 44-34, they shot efficiently (especially from outside), they forced Ole Miss to score inefficiently, they had just 9 turnovers before garbage time, and they stayed comfortable on offense by playing their own pace.
If the Gamecocks are going to make any sort of run in the NCAA Tournament, that's how they will need to play.
South Carolina Basketball vs. Ole Miss Rebels
Thumbs Up 2: Zach Davis
Zach Davis had the best game of his South Carolina basketball career against Ole Miss. He set career-high marks for scoring (14 points) and rebounding (9 boards) while playing tough defense against some of the hardest-to-defend scoring guards in the conference in Matthew Murrell and Allen Flanigan.
Davis was called on to play even more minutes than usual with Myles Stute out with a knee injury, and the sophomore delivered in a big way.
South Carolina Basketball vs. Ole Miss Rebels
Thumbs Up 3: 2nd Half Bigs
In the 1st half against Ole Miss, BJ Mack was bad (got whipped on the glass multiple times and shot 1-5 from the field) and Collin Murray-Boyles barely played because he in foul trouble (3 fouls in the first 10 minutes of the game).
Josh Gray and Stephen Clark combined for 14 minutes covering for the two starters, and they held things together, but the Gamecocks needed their starters to step up to avoid a 2nd-half collapse like they experienced against LSU.
In the 2nd half, Mack and CMB did, indeed, step up, joining Zach Davis as the most impactful players on the floor. After halftime, the two starting bigs combined to score 22 of the team's 36 points while shooting 67% from the floor.
South Carolina Basketball vs. Ole Miss Rebels
Thumbs Down 1: Fouls
There were some really strange calls from the officials on Saturday afternoon, including a reach-in foul on Jacobi Wright in which the Carolina guard never came within 6 inches of touching Rebel guard TJ Caldwell. However, even with the questionable whistles in mind, the Gamecocks fouled too much.
Just 10 minutes into the game, Collin Murray-Boyles (3), Zach Davis (2), and Jacobi Wright (2) were all in foul trouble, and USC finished the game with 21 calls against them despite the relatively slow pace of the game.
On closeouts, the Gamecocks fouled jump shooters four separate times, including twice on 3-point attempts. They also fouled unnecessarily at the end of the 2nd half on multiple occassions, prolonging the game. Though the fouls were almost the only issue for the Gamecocks on defense on Saturday, they will need to be a little crisper next time out on Wednesday.
South Carolina Basketball vs. Ole Miss Rebels
Thumbs Down 2: Meechie Johnson's Scoring Drought
Meechie Johnson scored at least 11 points in 15 of the Gamecocks' first 18 games. He scored at least 24 points in 5 of those games. Since then, he has scored more than 6 points just 2 times in 8 games. He's also shooting 26% from the field in those 8 games. He's in a scoring slump.
The latest edition of the slump saw him score just 5 total points on 1-11 shooting. He hit a 3-pointer in the 1st half and made 2 free throws but did not score any other points.
To Johnson's credit, in most games during this stretch, he has helped the team in other ways (assists, rebounds, good perimeter defense, etc.), but Coach Paris will need more from the most dynamic scorer on his team moving forward if Carolina is going to have any chance of making noise this March.
South Carolina Basketball vs. Ole Miss Rebels
Thumbs Down 3: Forcing Live-Ball Turnovers
South Carolina has not been a high-turnover defense this season. That trend continued in Oxford as they forced the Rebs to commit just 9 turnovers. Only 5 of those 9 were steals. Now, the Gamecocks were insanely efficient, scoring 12 points directly off of those turnovers. However, the low steal total paired with their usually-low block count holds back at least a couple of transition scoring opportunities per game for Lamont Paris squad (they scored just 2 fastbreak points on Saturday).
The Gamecocks' chances of winning go up if they can force more giveaways (duh), but it could also save the legs of the team a bit by allowing them to have a possession in which they don't have to defend hard for a full 30-second shot clock.