USC picks up second SEC win in 57-56 victory over Georgia
Georgia coach Mark Fox is familiar with South Carolina senior Malik Cooke.
Fox recruited Cooke to play at Nevada, where they won a conference championship together. Both left the program in 2009, when Fox debuted as the coach at UGA and Cooke transferred to USC.
With a 1-point lead in the last minute of the game, Fox wasn’t surprised to see his former player drive the lane and make a jumper with 20 seconds left in the game, giving the Gamecocks a 57-56 lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
“He’s a winner and we won a championship together years ago, so I hate to see the ball in his hands,” Fox said. “They’re a good team, and certainly we needed one more basket late.”
The Bulldogs nearly got that basket late, as Gerald Robinson drove the lane after Cooke’s jumper, but had his shot blocked by USC sophomore Damontre Harris.
“I was just trying to make a play to win a basketball game,” Harris said. “For the most part, I saw that he was driving to the rim, so I was just trying to get a hand on it — trying to make a play.”
The Bulldogs got another opportunity as Kentavious Caldwell-Pope had the last shot with a 3-pointer that Fox said was a good look but was ultimately off the mark. Cooke got the rebound, but Marcus Thornton forced a jump ball with 0.2 seconds left on the clock.
Nemanja Djurisic put the ball up for the Bulldogs, but a tip by Harris sent the ball into the side of the backboard before a Georgia player had the chance to tip it in.
For USC head coach Darrin Horn, Harris has been a consistent staple for the Gamecocks, even through the losing stretch.
“I think he’s having a borderline All-SEC year,” Horn said. “It’s not double-doubles like some of the guys you see around the league, but he’s right there — he had five blocks tonight. He had key plays, key rebounds, and he’s really doing it on both ends. He’s a young man that just keeps getting better and better.”
The win kept the Gamecocks from falling to 1-10 in the SEC, though Horn credited Cooke for keeping the spirits of the team high throughout the losing stretch.
“If you keep working hard and doing good things, eventually good things are going to happen for you,” Horn said. “No one deserves to make a play like that more than Malik does. He really has stayed extremely positive and done a really good job with our young guys and was phenomenal in huddles tonight and on the floor talking to our team — giving them confidence. I think it’s fitting that he’s the guy that makes the shot tonight that helped us win the game.”
Cooke, who finished with a game-high 13 points — just six points away from 1,000 points for his collegiate career — looks at the team’s second SEC win as something it can build on going into the last stretch of conference play.
“It’s very upbeat,” Cooke said. “We all enjoy what we do. We like doing this. We just want to come in and get better. We just try to get better throughout the season. If we can do that, I think we can build on it to the tournament. You never know what could happen and definitely build onto next season for the guys who are coming back.”
Fox said he and Cooke didn’t talk much after the game but that he congratulated Cooke on the win. Even in playing against Cooke’s former coach, that took a backseat to the team’s need — getting a win it desperately needed.
“Me and him have a very good relationship,” Cooke said. “He’s a good coach. I respect him a lot. I was just trying to get a win for South Carolina. I wasn’t really worried about any of the other stuff because we needed one.”