Without star point guard PJ Dozier, who was ruled out prior to the game due to back spasms, No. 24 South Carolina fell to No. 5 Kentucky 85-69.
Kentucky opened the game on a 23-6 run in the first eight and a half minutes. The Gamecocks, hindered by foul trouble and early turnovers, were unable to match the Wildcats' scoring explosion out of the gate. Kentucky started the game 3-for-5 from three in the first four minutes, while South Carolina had more turnovers (4) than points (3). Paired with Chris Silva picking up his second foul at the 15:15 mark, South Carolina’s hopes at victory seemed all but washed away in a sea of blue.
Yet at the 12:31 mark, the course of the game seemed to shift with a rolled ankle to Kentucky’s De’Aaron Fox. For the remainder of the half, South Carolina went on to outscore the Wildcats 32-28 in Fox’s absence. That stretch included a 3:24 stretch in which Hassani Gravett and Sindarius Thornwell alone combined to outscore the Wildcats 15-2. Thornwell scored 20 points in the first half, yet the Gamecocks still trailed 47-38 at the break.
South Carolina would start the second half on a 6-1 run to cut Kentucky’s lead to four, but the Gamecocks wouldn't get closer from there. Thornwell would score a career-high 34 points in the game, which moved him to eighth on the career South Carolina scoring list, yet only one other Gamecock player scored double digits.
“He’s our guy,” coach Frank Martin said of Thornwell. “He is the guy on our basketball team. He’s the guy that gets to the line, he's the guy that can post, he's the guy that can shoot; we play him at the one, the two, the three and the four. He’s our guy.”
Temarcus Blanton was the only player besides Thornwell to reach double figures on the night, scoring a career-high 12 points and hitting two three-pointers.
The Wildcats shredded what was the nation's most efficient defense. Kentucky’s 85 points was the most scored against South Carolina this season, as were their 28 field goals and 58 percent shooting from the field. Malik Monk led the Wildcats scoring attack, scoring 27 points on the night.
When asked about the team’s defensive performance, Martin said, “That's one thing about us, we’ve been pretty good at taking people’s leading scorers and holding them down. We didn’t do a very good job on Monk. We were bad, actually.”
South Carolina returns to action Tuesday at home against Auburn, as the Gamecocks look for their sixth win in SEC play.