Going into South Carolina’s Sweet 16 matchup with Baylor, coach Frank Martin said he’s harder on Chris Silva than any other player on his team.
That pressure must be paying off, as the sophomore forward scored 12 points and locked down Baylor’s leading scorer Jonathan Motley on the biggest stage of his collegiate career.
“It's been incredible,” Silva said. “Going from where I came from, Gabon, to living out here, I mean that's a lot, a lot of places, a lot of people that I met during the process and I'm just enjoying the process.
The seven-seeded Gamecocks held three-seeded Baylor to its lowest score of the season Friday night. Their 20-point win was headed by an 18-0 first-half run, where Silva and the USC defense switched on Motley, making it hard for him to shoot from the middle. The 6-foot-10 forward, who averages 17.3 points per game, shot 8-of-17 from the field and did not attempt a single 3-pointer.
“We wanted to box him out and we knew he was long and athletic and we didn't want him to get on board, so we wanted to box him out,” Silva said of Motley.
“You got the first guy being extremely physical with you and then you got another guy over the top you got to worry about, so, yeah, it was tough,” Motley said of the USC defense. “But like I said, Coach Martin, that's the game plan and they executed it to the T and they did great job.”
When he doesn’t get into early foul trouble, Silva has been a huge presence for the Gamecocks both offensively and defensively in the NCAA tournament. The 6-foot-9 big man tallied seven boards, two blocks and one steal in 25 minutes of play against Baylor Friday. He committed only one foul in the first half and hit a mid-range jumper to extend the Gamecocks’ run to 16-0 with 3:23 left in the first half.
“It's no secret, all you got to do is watch our season and games that he got in foul trouble and didn't play well, we struggled to score at the rim. And in games that he has not, we have done a pretty good job of protecting the rim and scoring at the rim. He's a big, big part of what we do,” Martin said.
Prior to the Sweet 16, Silva scored 10 points against Marquette and notched a double-double of 17 points and 10 rebounds against Duke. With his contributions both ends, Martin said the sophomore was playing like an upperclassman.
“We needed him to be a senior even though he's a sophomore that's only played ball for less than four years. And he's been willing to accept that responsibility,” Martin said.
But ask Silva about his performance Friday night and he’s only focused on one thing: securing the bag.
“We’re not done yet. We don't want to be just here, we want — we're hungry, we want to keep winning.”