South Carolina Basketball: Gamecock shooting drought kills momentum as USC loses big on road to Alabama

South Carolina Basketball vs. Alabama Crimson Tide
Stats, Scoring, and Observations

South Carolina basketball followed up their win over Mississippi State from Saturday with a great 1st half against the Alabama Crimson Tide. However, a horrible 2nd half (by far, the Gamecocks' worst half of the season) allowed the home Alabama team to embarrass Carolina by almost 30 points, 74-47.

Here are the stats from the game:

STATS

Alabama

Points

Leader: Mark Sears with 31

Rebounds

Leader: Aaron Estrada with 7

Assists

Leader: Mark Sears and Rylan Griffen with 3 each

Steals

Leader: Mark Sears with 3

Blocks

Leader: Nick Pringle with 2

Other

Mark Sears scored 31 points on just 13 shot attempts (10-13/6-8/5-5); The Crimson Tide outscored the Gamecocks 44-18 in the 2nd half; Myles Stute (0-3), Stephen Clark (0-2), and BJ Mack (2-10) combined for just 7 points on 15 shots and 7 turnovers in 64 minutes

South Carolina

Points

Leader: Meechie Johnson with 16

Rebounds

Leader: BJ Mack with 6

Assists

Leader: Myles Stute and Meechie Johnson with 2 each

Steals

Leader: Ta'Lon Cooper with 3

Blocks

Leader: Josh Gray with 1

Other

The Gamecocks shot 31% from the field and 20% from behind the 3-point line; they finished the game with 17 turnovers

BOX SCORE

OBSERVATIONS

• Starters: Ta’Lon Cooper-Meechie Johnson-Myles Stute-BJ Mack-Stephen Clark
• BJ Mack was active early. Ta'Lon Cooper was very aggressive, scoring 8 points in the first 4 minutes.
• The Gamecock defense played very well. Unfortunately, Mark Sears made multiple difficult shots to keep the game tight in the 1st half.
• The 1st half was pretty clean. The officials let the players play, but the two teams also played under control (other than the combined 14 turnovers).
• Carolina had 6 offensive boards (compared to just 1 for Alabama) in the 1st half.
• Mark Sears was ridiculous in the 1st half, scoring 15 of his team's 30 points. Meechie Johnson, Ta'Lon Cooper, and BJ Mack combined for 23 of Carolina's 29.
• The game favored the USC style for the 1st 20 minutes as the 'Tide was held to just 30 points in the 1st half, more in line with Carolina's defensive averages than Alabama's offensive ones.
• A disastrous start to the 2nd half saw the Gamecocks miss their first 10 shots. The run made it to 24-5 in favor of Alabama over the first 11 minutes of the period.
• The rest of the game was non-competitive, and USC didn't show much fight. Carolina got dominated in every phase after the halftime break.