Just when the South Carolina men’s basketball team seemed broken, beaten — at its lowest point — Lamont Paris led the Gamecocks to his first signature win as head coach.
Tuesday night’s game at Rupp Arena was a battle of two humbled teams. The mighty Kentucky Wildcats entered the contest coming off a 26-point drubbing at Alabama, while the Gamecocks suffered their worst SEC loss in program history at the hands of Tennessee on Saturday.
The Gamecocks shook off the embarrassment of that loss and responded in resounding fashion by defeating John Calipari’s Wildcats, 71-68. The win was just the third-ever victory for the Gamecocks at Rupp Arena and first since 2009. The Gamecocks (8-8, 1-2 SEC) had lost eight straight games in Lexington before Tuesday and are now 3-29 at Rupp all time.
Prior to the 2005 win, South Carolina last defeated Kentucky (10-6, 1-3) on the road on March 2, 1997 — a win that sealed the SEC title.
Here’s what we learned from the stunning USC win.
Eye-opening first half
Nothing went right for the Gamecocks against the Volunteers on Saturday. But three days after losing by a whopping 43 points, the Gamecocks put up 42 points against Kentucky in an eye-opening first half. Those 42 points matched the total output for the Gamecocks in 40 minutes on Saturday.
Led by the team’s Big Three of point guard Meechie Johnson and forwards GG Jackson and Hayden Brown, the Gamecocks jumped out to a 21-6 lead by peppering the paint and creating easy looks near the rim.
Then, when Kentucky went on a 12-3 run to trim the deficit, Johnson took off from the 3-point line. He finished the first half with four 3-pointers, most from well beyond the arc, and had a game-high 16 points.
The Gamecocks shot 57% in the first 20 minutes, and the 42 points was a season-high for a South Carolina first half this year. It also marked the first halftime lead for the Gamecocks at Rupp Arena since 2005 — their last victory in Lexington.
Gamecocks sizzle from beyond the arc
After Paris called out the star freshman Jackson for his poor body language in a scoreless outing against the Vols, the 6-foot-9 forward bounced back against the Wildcats. He notched 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting, sinking two 3-pointers and posting his 15th double-digit game in 16 South Carolina games.
But despite the constant spotlight placed on him, Jackson wasn’t the star for the Gamecocks on Tuesday night.
Johnson delivered his best performance since transferring to South Carolina from Ohio State, putting up a career-high 26 points and making six 3-pointers to pace the Gamecocks in scoring.
As a whole, the Gamecocks made 11 of 20 3-point looks (55%), while the Wildcats mustered just three 3-pointers for the game. USC’s prowess beyond the arc made a key difference.
Change to starting lineup
Paris made a tweak to his starting lineup, in part to match up better with 6-foot-9 Kentucky star Oscar Tshiebwe. Paris sat the struggling Benjamin Bosmans-Verdonk in favor of 7-foot center Josh Gray, giving the Gamecocks a more physical presence down low.
That change seemed to pay dividends early, as the Gamecocks started off strong near the rim, out-rebounding Kentucky 10-4 and out-scoring UK 8-4 in the paint as South Carolina built up a 15-point lead.
Gray’s final stat line doesn’t jump off the page — four points and two rebounds — but the Gamecocks as a whole seemed stingier in the paint.
