South Carolina basketball coach Lamont Paris and his team were back from their short Christmas break, and with one more game before the SEC schedule begins, the Gamecocks welcomed the Florida A&M Rattlers to Colonial Life Arena.
After a one-game absence, Meechie Johnson returned to the starting lineup, and after Myles Stute started the scoring with a 3-ball, Johnson made his first long ball to match.
Carolina jumped out to a quick 8-0 lead, but the Rattlers scored 8 in a row to tie the score before the media timeout. After the short break, A&M took the lead for 15 seconds, but a Stute layup and two Jacobi Wright free throws put USC on top again.
The game’s third 8-0 run (two for Carolina, one for A&M) ended on a Keith Lamar 3-pointer, but Zach Davis answered immediately with one of his own to make the score 19-13. 6 straight from the Rattlers tied things up again as Meechie Johnson struggled to put the ball in the basket. After moving to 1-8 for the day, Myles Stute hit another 3-pointer to kick start another run, this one an 20-0 run that also saw Morris Ugusuk hit three shots from behind the arc.
In the end, Florida A&M didn’t score a point for over 7 minutes before big Ja’Derryus Eatmon scored on a post-up. A couple of possessions later, a big Collin Murray-Boules dunk off a nice pass from Benjamin Bosmans-Verdonk got the crowd going a bit.
Coasting to halftime on a 30-2 run, South Carolina basketball entered the halftime break with a massive 49-21 lead.
Myles Stute continued his hot shooting after the halftime break, knocking down another outside jumper to get the 2nd half started. A few possessions, later a Keith Lamar 3-pointer brought the count to 56-24 (FAMU was 3-4 from behind the arc at that point).
After all of their 1st half struggles, the Rattlers scored 13 points in the first 4:45 of the 2nd half, and when the under-16 media timeout came, the score stood 62-34 as the two teams had scored evenly in the early goings of the 2nd stanza.
After going 0-5 in the 1st half, Jalen Speer made his first 3 shots of the 2nd, but he fouled Zach Davis on a fastbreak layup. Davis made the shot through the contact anyway.
The Gamecocks pushed the lead to 30 points for the second time after BJ Mack hit a 3-pointer and then sunk 2 free throws on the next trip down the floor. Another throwdown for Collin Murray-Boyles made the score 75-43.
Coach Paris’ team coasted to the finish line over the final 7:00.
Murray-Boyles scored 9 straight to set a new career-high with 17 points, and the rest of the game saw the two teams trade baskets and misses.
South Carolina Basketball vs. Florida A&M:
Stats, Scoring, and Observations
For just the 6th time in program history, South Carolina basketball is 12-1 (or better) as the Gamecocks beat the Florida A&M Rattlers to best last season’s win total before SEC play even begins. In a game of runs, USC had the most and the biggest (20-0), giving themselves a comfortable 94-62 victory.
Here are the stats from the game:
STATS
Florida A&M
Points
Leader: Ja’Derryun Eatmon with 14
Rebounds
Leader: Keith Lamar with 5
Assists
Leader: Hantz Louis-Joune with 4
Steals
Leader: Keith Lamar with 4
Blocks
Leader: Ja’Derryun Eatmon with 2
Other
Florida A&M went over 7 minutes scoreless and gave up two 8-0 runs, a 20-0 run, and a 10-0 run in the 1st half.
South Carolina
Points
Leader: Collin Murray-Boyles with 17
Rebounds
Leader: Stephen Clark with 9
Assists
Leader: Meechie Johnson with 6
Steals
Leader: Collin Murray-Boyles with 2
Blocks
Leader: BJ Mack with 2
Other
The Gamecocks were extremely streaky in this one, going on multiple long scoring runs; they also shot 24-28 from the free throw line; the bench scored 52 points
OBSERVATIONS
- Starters: Ta’Lon Cooper-Meechie Johnson-Myles Stute-BJ Mack-Stephen Clark
- Clark, as he often does, left the floor after just a few minutes and didn’t return for the rest of the half.
- In the 1st half, the game was a game of runs. Three straight 8-0 runs started the game (two for USC, one for A&M), and the Rattlers added another 5-0 run and the Gamecocks went on a 20-0 and a 10-0 run.
- Myles Stute and Morris Ugusuk combined to go 6-9 from the perimeter in the half, and Collin Murray-Boyles scored 8 points, 2 rebounds, 2 steals, and as assist in 9 minutes.
- The bench, led by Ugusuk’s 9 and CMB’s 8, scored 27 of the team’s 49 points in the 1st half. It was the highest-scoring output by the team in a 1st half all year.
- The 2nd half was much more even, but it was hard to say whether that was a product of even play or coasting from the Gamecocks.
- The bench scored 52 points.