The South Carolina men's basketball team earned its fourth win of the season after defeating Radford 87-58 on Tuesday night at Colonial Life Arena in Columbia, South Carolina.
South Carolina opened the game on a 7-0 run despite the offense shooting just 2-6 from the floor during that run. Graduate student guard Myles Stute knocked down a three for the game's first points. This basket also put him over the 1,000 career point threshold.
As the Gamecock offense struggled, the Highlanders capitalized and went on their own 7-0 after starting the game 0-5 from the floor.
With a little over 14 minutes left in the first half, redshirt senior guard Meechie Johnson left the floor with an injury. He returned later in the first half.
Over the next five minutes, the Highlanders managed to keep the game close as they were able to get easy fastbreak layups while the Gamecock defense wasn’t set.
South Carolina popped a 8-0 run to extend their lead into double digits and gain a little separation from the Highlanders. By the end of the first half, the Gamecocks led 40-25, going on another 8-0 run after Radford cut the deficit to 7 points with 2:20 left in the first half.
Junior forward Elijah Strong led the Gamecocks with 10 points, which included two turnaround fadeaways over Radford defenders.
The Gamecocks also managed to score 28 points in the paint after going 2-14 from behind the arc. South Carolina finished the night shooting just 7-25 from three.
South Carolina picked up right where it left off in the second half, as the Gamecocks scored 10 straight points in three minutes. Redshirt senior guard Kobe Knox dunked the ball on a fast break and senior guard Mike Sharavjamts hit back-to-back 3 pointers, for just the third and fourth three’s for South Carolina in the game.
As the second half progressed, South Carolina continued to work the ball inside, scoring 10 more points in the paint to make it 38 total. By the end of the game, the Gamecocks dominated the Highlanders in paint by scoring 48 points to their 16.
Junior forward Jordan Butler and freshman guards Eli Ellis and Grant Polk all came off the bench in the second to help the Gamecocks take a 71-44 lead by the under eight media timeout. For almost eight minutes of action, the trio scored 17 of South Carolina’s 19 points in that time span.
For the remaining 7:46 left in the half South Carolina's offense cooled down, scoring 16 points. The Gamecocks were outscored by the Highlanders in the second half, but the game remained well out of reach for Radford.
Senior guard Eli Sparkman hit the final shot of the game for South Carolina with a 3-pointer to push the final to 87-58. The Gamecocks are now 16-0 when they scored 80 or more under head coach Lamont Paris.
Strong finished the game with 15 points, which is the most he had scored in a game since a loss to the Clemson Tigers on March 5 as a member of the Boston College Eagles, where he also had 15. Ellis had 14 points for the second highest on the team. The pair combined for 29 of the team's 50 bench points.
Sharavjamts also managed to earn his first career double-double after scoring 12 points and 10 rebounds.
The Gamecocks finished the game with 22 assists on 34 made field goals, their second highest total number in assists in a game this season.
What's next?
The Gamecocks (4-0) will travel to Sulphur Springs, West Virginia to participate in the 2025 Greenbrier Tip-off. South Carolina will face off with the Butler Bulldogs (3-1) on Nov. 21 at 2 p.m. The game will be broadcast on the CBS Sports Network.