The Daily Gamecock

South Carolina men's basketball earns first SEC victory

Gamecocks blow out Texas A&M 80-52 in Colonial Life Arena

The Gamecocks won their first SEC game of the year in an 80-52 blowout of Texas A&M, avenging a loss to the Aggies earlier in the season.

Freshman guard Duane Notice scored 12 second-half points, which helped him earn a career-high of 19 points on the night.

Freshman guard Sindarius Thornwell also chipped in with 19 points of his own to go along with four rebounds and three assists.

Both players were efficient shooting the ball; Notice went 6-of-8 shooting, and Thornwell went 5-of-8 from the field.

Coach Frank Martin was pleased with Notice’s performance, his best since taking over as the Gamecocks’ point guard.

“Duane was as vocal and as enthused about the last two days of practice consistently as he’s been all year,” Martin said. “It’s no surprise that he played with tremendous confidence today. He played like a point guard today, mentally and physically.”

Notice said injured point guard Tyrone Johnson and former football and basketball star Bruce Ellington had given him advice on how to play the position better.

“This week, I went to (assistant) coach (Matt) Figger’s house,” Notice said, “and it gave me the motivation to figure out who I am as a player and figure coach Frank out.”

South Carolina’s defense was stingy as well, with not one Aggie scoring double figures on the night. Freshman guard Shawn Smith and junior guard Jamal Jones led Texas A&M with nine points apiece, but combined, they shot just 3-of-15 for the game.

Turnovers plagued the Aggies in the early goings, as the Gamecocks started off on an 8-0 run with 16:30 remaining in the first half.

Texas A&M began to creep back, but with about 8:30 left in the first half, South Carolina went on a 20-6 run that lasted the remainder of the half. Fast break opportunities were plentiful in the opening period for the Gamecocks.

Missed free throws prolonged the Aggies’ suffering. They were sub-par from the line all game, going 16-of-29 on the night.

Senior guard Brenton Williams had 11 points for South Carolina in the first half and finished with 18 for the game.

The Gamecocks’ lead crept up to 21 points at one point in the half, which was the biggest lead the Gamecocks have had in the first half of an SEC game all year.

The Aggies cut the lead to 43-30 with 17:40 left in the game. Then, Shawn Smith missed a point-blank layup, and Notice capitalized on the other end of the court with an and-one layup. Texas A&M coach Billy Kennedy said that missed layup may have kept the Aggies from turning things around and winning the game.

With 13:12 remaining, Notice had another tough and-one layup to put the Gamecocks up 53-37.
Williams put the icing on the cake with a three-pointer with 10:22 left to give the Gamecocks a 59-37 lead. The lead got up to 32 at one point before settling at a final margin of victory of 28 points.
Sophomore forward Laimonas Chatkevicius capped off the night late in the second half with a high-flying dunk from the right baseline, which had the fans at Colonial Life Arena on their feet.

Martin said he was happy with how aggresive his players — particularly the trio of guards, Williams, Notice and Thornwell — stayed on offensive.

“All three are starting to feel more comfortable with everything,” Martin said. “The simplicity of our offense allowed them to just be on attack mode and pass the ball.”

With the win, the Gamecocks moved to 8-12 on the season and 1-6 in SEC play. Texas A&M fell to 12-8 with the loss and 3-4 in conference play.

Martin and Williams thanked the fans for coming out to support the Gamecocks in less-than-ideal weather conditions, and they said it was a relief to get their first SEC victory.

“It does feel good; we knew one was coming sooner or later,” Williams said. “We were really appreciative of seeing the student section the way it was. It means a lot to us, and it inspired us to play even better.”


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