South Carolina Basketball: Gamecocks smother Elon Phoenix to move to 11-1

South Carolina Basketball vs. Elon:
Stats, Scoring, and Observations

Against an offensively-potent Elon squad, South Carolina basketball had their best defensive game of the year, holding the Phoenix to just 43 points in the 70-43 victory. Carolina is now 11-1 and has matched its win total from all of last year.

Here are the stats from the game:

STATS

Elon

Points

Leader: Sam Sherry with 12

Rebounds

Leader: TK Simpkins with 8

Assists

Leader: Three players each with 2

Steals

Leader: Four players each with 1

Blocks

Leader: Four players each with 1

Other

Elon shot just 32% from the field and 14.3% from the behind the arc

South Carolina

Points

Leader: Ta’Lon Cooper with 17

Rebounds

Leader: Myles Stute with 8

Assists

Leader: Three players each with 3

Steals

Leader: Jacobi Wright and Zach Davis each with 2

Blocks

Leader: Three players each with 1

Other

Myles Stute scored 14 points in the 2nd half after going scoreless in the 1st half; Ta'Lon Cooper set a Gamecock career-high with 17 points; Collin Murray-Boyles had his first 10-point game; Giving up just 43 points sets a new season-low

BOX SCORE

OBSERVATIONS

• Starters: Ta’Lon Cooper-Jacobi Wright-Myles Stute-BJ Mack-Stephen Clark
  
• Meechie Johnson missed the game with a minor knee injury.
  
• Ebrima Dibba and Josh Gray did not play.
  
• Both Carolina and Elon struggled shooting the basketball in the early goings. USC did a little better late in the 1st half, but the period ended with Elon shooting 27% and Carolina shooting 39%.
  
• Myles Stute really struggled in the 1st half. He threw up three air balls on his first three shots and finished 0-5 in the first 20 minutes with three air balls and a shot blocked. He bounced back with a nice 2nd half.
  
• The Gamecocks played really good defense in the 1st half.
  
• Though the offense struggled early, Ta’Lon Cooper and Jacobi Wright had some good moments. They combined to score 15 points (on 6-9 shooting) and grab 5 rebounds
  
• BJ Mack’s struggles continued. His defense wasn’t great down low, and he had just 9 points on 10 shot attempts
• 
  The overall rebounding effort from Coach Paris’ team was good (44-31), but as has become a theme for this squad, the bigs weren’t the top men on the glass. Myles Stute led the way with 8 boards, but starting bigs BJ Mack and Stephen Clark combined for just 5 over 35 minutes.