South Carolina Basketball: Gamecocks bounce back with road win in the "other Columbia"

South Carolina Basketball vs. Missouri Tigers
Stats, Scoring, and Observations

South Carolina basketball followed up their loss to Alabama with a bounce-back win on the road against Missouri. In a game in which the Gamecocks did not play their best ball, they escaped Columbia, Missouri with a road victory in the SEC to move to 14-2 (2-1).

Here are the stats from the game:

STATS

Missouri

Points

Leader: Noah Carter with 23

Rebounds

Leader: Sean East with 8

Assists

Leader: Jesus Carralero Martin with 4

Steals

Leader: Jesus Carralero Martin with 4

Blocks

Leader: Connor Vanover with 2

Other

The Tigers started off 1-12 from 3-point land but made 4-10 in the 2nd half and overtime; Missouri shot 12-18 from the free throw line, including two huge misses on the front end of 1-and-1 opportunities late in regulation

South Carolina

Points

Leader: BJ Mack with 21

Rebounds

Leader: Ta'Lon Cooper with 8

Assists

Leader: Three players each with 3

Steals

Leader: Meechie Johnson and Myles Stute each with 1

Blocks

Leader: None

Other

The Gamecocks had 16 turnovers (well above their season average), but they made up for it with 15 offensive rebounds and 16-18 free throw shooting

BOX SCORE

OBSERVATIONS

• Starters: Ta’Lon Cooper-Meechie Johnson-Myles Stute-BJ Mack-Collin Murray-Boyles; this was the first different starting lineup of the season as Carolina had started a Cooper-Johnson-Stute-Mack-Stephen Clark lineup in every game before this one
• The Gamecocks utilized hard hedges and some two-man trap game with the more athletic starting lineup, and the aggressive defense made things difficult at times for Mizzou.
• USC held Missouri's top guard Sean East scoreless for most of the half, but he scored 7 points quickly in the closing minutes. Meechie Johnson matched East with 0 points until the final minutes of the opening stanza, but he scored 5 in the final 1:37 of clock.
• With CMB starting down low, former Gamecock post starters Josh Gray, Stephen Clark, and Benjamin Bosmans-Verdonk all played off the bench and played with energy in the 1st half.
• Carolina held Mizzou to 1-12 shooting from the perimeter in the opening 20 minutes.
• BJ Mack had a nice game on offense but gave up a lot of points on defense.
• The Gamecocks had more turnovers than normal (16), but what made that issue such a problem for USC was the fact that 11 of them were live ball turnovers that gave Missouri opportunities to score in transition. They only scored 3 on fastbreaks, but they added 12 more that were almost fastbreak points, giving them 15 points off of turnovers for the game.
• Meechie Johnson didn't play down the stretch of regulation or at all in overtime until the final defensive possession. His attitude appeared great as he was engaged during timeouts and was encouraging his team from the bench.
• Ta'Lon Cooper and BJ Mack carried the Gamecocks late in the game. Jacobi Wright and Collin Murray-Boyles did their part, as well.
• Jacobi Wright's game-winner was the first of his college career.