South Carolina Basketball: Gamecocks earn 7th win in a row, stay in 1st place in SEC

South Carolina Basketball vs. Vanderbilt Commodores
Stats, Scoring, and Observations

South Carolina basketball did not play particularly well in the 1st half against Jerry Stackhouse's team and trailed by 4 points heading into the intermission, but they rode Collin Murray-Boyles and BJ Mack to a huge 2nd half, beating the Commodores 75-60.

Here are the stats from the game:

STATS

Vanderbilt

Points

Leader: Tyrin Lawrence with 15

Rebounds

Leader: Four players each with 4 points

Assists

Leader: Ezra Manjon with 3

Steals

Leader: Ezra Manjon with 2

Blocks

Leader: None

Other

The Commodores shot an abysmal 3-10 from the free throw line

South Carolina

Points

Leader: Collin Murray-Boyles with 31

Rebounds

Leader: Collin Murray-Boyles with 7

Assists

Leader: Ta'Lon Cooper with 7

Steals

Leader: Meechie Johnson and Collin Murray-Boyles each with 1

Blocks

Leader: Josh Gray with 2

Other

The Gamecocks made 1-11 of his 3-pointers in the 1st half but bounced back to shoot 8-18 after halftime; BJ Mack made 5 3-pointers

BOX SCORE

OBSERVATIONS

• Starters: Ta’Lon Cooper-Meechie Johnson-Zach Davis-BJ Mack-Collin Murray-Boyles
• Vanderbilt hit some tough shots early.
• The Commodores had no one who could match up with Collin Murray-Boyles' combination of size and athleticism. He had 11 points in the 1st half on 5-7 shooting.
• Other than CMB, though, the Carolina offense seemed bogged down. They got a fair amount of open outside shots, but they weren't falling. Everything else looked slow and unsure.
• Ezra Manjon ran the show early, getting some quality looks for himself and for his teammates.
• The officials let a lot of contact go in the 1st half.
• The Gamecocks shot just 1-11 from outside in the opening 20 minutes.
• Vandy outrebounded Carolina in the 1st half 17-13.
• The halftime break saw the Gamecocks come out with much more energy and focus after halftime. The shooting was better, the tempo was quicker, and the rebounding improved.
• For the game, USC had 2isjfosu turnovers, but 3 of them came within 2 minutes of game action early in the 2nd half. The Gamecocks took care of the basketball well.
• The Collin Murray-Boyles domination was even more apparent in the 2nd half. He finished the game with 31 points on 14-17 shooting; he had 4 big dunks and 3 and-one conversions. It was the most points from a Gamecock since Jermaine Couisnard scored 33 against LSU two years ago.