Low-scoring first half dooms Gamcecocks in SEC home opener
With 10 seconds left in the SEC home opener against Vanderbilt, South Carolina’s Bruce Ellington nailed a 3-pointer from the top of the key.
It was a cruel irony, as the shot was too little too late for one of USC’s worst shooting nights of the season, as the Gamecocks lost 57-67 to the Commodores.
The offense for the Gamecocks never got going, starting 1-for-6 less than five minutes into the game, with three of those shots being 3-pointer attempts. It got worse throughout the night, as USC finished 4-for-13 from beyond the arc.
Scoring only 12 points in the first half, the Gamecocks shot 19.2 percent from the field, as opposed to Vandy, which shot 53.3 percent, but only trailed the Commodores by 10. The score was kept moderately close largely because of Vanderbilt's 11 turnovers.
"I thought we were in really good shape," said USC coach Darrin Horn of the game at halftime. "Obviously, it was a 10-point deficit, but we held their top two scorers to five points and had the game in the kind of game we needed it to be to give ourselves the chance we needed to win the basketball game, but in the second half, they scored way too easy."
Vandy was able to make adjustments and create greater separation coming out of halftime, eliminating the mishandling errors in the first half and nailing five 3-pointers to open the second half, while the Gamecocks were stunted defensively, something that was a high point in the first half.
"Take care of the ball and rebound, which were the same things I talked about for the two days prior to the game," said Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings of the halftime message to the team. "Take care of the ball and rebound and take away their 3-pointers, which we did a very good job of in the first half."
While the Commodores came out strong in the second half, the script only slightly changed for USC, as the Gamecocks finished with a 41.5 shooting percentage after shooting 63 percent in the second half, but again, the second half effort was too little too late.
"(In the first half) there were so many times when, if we didn't have something initially, we just kind of stood around and held the ball," Horn said. "We didn't do that in the second half. We continued to drive the basketball and get it in the paint. We got in the bonus and did some good things, but we didn't do that in the first half."
Lost in the game was the performance of Damontre Harris, who had his first double-double of the season, finishing with 11 points and 10 rebounds. For Horn, Harris' development in the season is a positive from the loss.
"I think Damontre Harris was tremendous tonight against a potential NBA draft pick, having a double-double, being incredibly active, and did a lot of positive things," Horn said. "He continues to show consistency and get better. When you look down the column, there's some things that aren't as positive from individuals."
With the Gamecocks out to a 0-2 start in SEC play and Florida looming on Saturday, keeping the confidence up on the team is important to rebounding from the losses in conference play, but Horn doesn't see confidence as something that fosters from wins, but improvement.
"Confidence comes from working hard and not having success just in winning but doing what you need to do well to be your best," Horn said. "If we don't stay focused on getting better, our next day out and our next game out, we can't start looking down the road and playing 'what ifs.' We've got to keep getting better."