The Daily Gamecock

Men's basketball sinks Ole Miss in final seconds

Eric Smith (5).
Eric Smith (5).

 

Smith delivers game-winner for Gamecocks

South Carolina assistant coach Matt Figger wrote on a whiteboard in the team’s locker room that the Gamecocks had been with a lead, tied or down one point with two minutes to play in its five league losses.

“We put it on the board — the time, the score and every outcome of every game — just to show our guys when you do something a certain way, you put yourself in a place where you can win games,” USC head coach Frank Martin said. “Now be fearless in the moment and go finish the game.”
It was the same script in a close game against Ole Miss Wednesday night, but with an Eric Smith 3-pointer and a subsequent block by Lakeem Jackson, the Gamecocks had a different outcome than those six consecutive SEC losses.
USC took a one-point lead with 25 seconds remaining and held on to beat Ole Miss 63-62. The win ended a six-game losing streak during which Martin said his players looked like zombies at times.
In the 10-point loss to Alabama, Martin said he felt encouraged — the happiest he’d ever been after a loss. Against the Rebels, he saw signs of progress.
The Gamecocks had jumped out to a five-point lead — its largest of the night — with less than 10 minutes left in the game, but after an 11-0 Ole Miss run, Martin called timeout.
In a timeout at Florida three weeks ago, Martin called a similar timeout with his team on the ropes, but he said he didn’t like what he saw in his players’ faces. They’d been missing the resolve he’d seen previously.
There were subtle differences in this game from the prior losses. Smith said the team was being vocal in the huddle as the game neared its end, whereas players were quiet in the past. Martin said the team took advantage of the scouting report unlike past games.
Against Ole Miss, Martin said the team wasn’t playing “patty-cake” in the timeout, but the Gamecocks rose to the occasion.
“Somewhere in the middle of that timeout, Bruce Ellington once again opened his mouth and said, ‘We’ve worked too hard to give in to this moment,’” Martin said. “Then Eric Smith jumped on that comment. Then (freshman Michael) Carrera, who had not been in the game, he jumped in the timeout and just created a positive moment in a difficult situation.”
The Gamecocks rallied, and a 3-pointer by junior guard Brenton Williams with two minutes left in the game got USC within two points of Ole Miss. Jackson rebounded a missed Ellington jumper and tipped it out to Smith.
In what he called the biggest shot of his career, Smith made a 3-pointer to give the Gamecocks their final lead with 25 seconds remaining.
“I just noticed Lakeem got a good offensive rebound, and I tried to find an open spot,” Smith said. “I was open, so I just tried to shoot it with confidence, and I made the shot.”
He finished with 12 points, while Carrera led USC with 13 points and 13 rebounds, his fifth double-double of the season. The Rebels’ Marshall Henderson — the SEC’s leading scorer — missed a 3-pointer on Ole Miss’s next possession.
Smith was fouled for USC, but missed his first free throw of a one-and-one, giving the Rebels an opportunity to score on the fast break. Guard Nick Williams put a shot up, but it was promptly blocked by Jackson.
“I was all over Lakeem the whole game,” Martin said. “I felt that he could go make plays that he wasn’t willing to make today. Give him credit that as much as I was challenging him, he never gave in to the moment. Rather than hang his head because I was on him, he responded when you needed him to.”
Ole Miss missed its last seven shots of the game, including a desperation shot at the buzzer by Henderson.
“We got the ball to the guys I thought we needed to get it to,” Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy said. “We got it to the SEC-leading scorer a couple times ... The SEC-leading scorer can’t go 4-for-17 and expect to win on the road.”
When time expired and the buzzer sounded, the student section pressed against the ropes blocking them from the court, celebrating the team’s first win since Jan. 26. The Gamecocks responded, tapping seemingly every hand and going from one end of the student section to the other.
The moment had been there for the Gamecocks, having come within 10 points of victory in four of their SEC losses. They weren’t able to seize it then, but this time, USC reveled in it.

 


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