A 72-63 victory for Kentucky over South Carolina men's basketball belies what was a tightly contested affair for most of 40 minutes.
A 3-pointer from senior guard Mike Sharavjamts with just under three minutes remaining brought the game within 2 points for South Carolina at 59-57. The Gamecocks faltered down the stretch, however, surrendering a 10-0 run to seal another defeat in conference play.
Redshirt senior guard Meechie Johnson finished as his team’s top scorer for the seventh consecutive game with 18 points, but he still looked to do more, with the game still in limbo late.
“We had the game in our hands," Johnson said. "I have got to be better down the stretch."
For head coach Lamont Paris, it was the lack of play-making in crunch time that sealed the loss for the Gamecocks, making it their eighth conference loss in the last nine games.
“We had put ourselves in a position to win the game late in the game, and then it was a variety of decisions and plays that we did not make at the time ... combined with a couple of plays they made … but we also had some real breakdowns in those moments,” Paris said.
The Wildcats also went on a 13-0 run toward the end of the first half, turning an early 15-9 deficit into a 7-point advantage.
Paris did find positives on the defensive side of the ball. South Carolina forced 15 turnovers, a season high for its opponents, and held Wildcat senior guard Otega Oweh, widely considered among the nation’s best college basketball players, to just 8 points.
“I thought the execution of our game plan, particularly when you have one player that’s not only a very capable scorer but he’s been playing well as of late," Paris said. "I thought our attention to that was good. I give us a lot of credit for that."
This was only the fourth time Oweh was held to under 10 points since transferring to the Wildcats before last season, and it was the first time this year. On the other three occasions, however, Kentucky lost the game.
South Carolina’s struggles with rebounding persisted. The Wildcats managed 20 more total rebounds than the Gamecocks on the night, including 18 offensive boards to South Carolina’s five.
“I think we have a lot of guys that don’t view themselves as the guy that goes and gets (the rebound) when it’s all said and done, and therefore, they probably just can’t or don’t consistently have the urgency that one would have if they’ve always been the guy that was in charge of all the rebounding,” Paris said.
The Gamecocks’ head coach added that he would be spending his entire day “devising the defense that can prevent offensive rebounds,” in an effort to address his team’s rebounding woes.
Kentucky scored 14 second-chance points compared to the Gamecocks’ 4. For South Carolina to finish its season strong with the SEC Tournament looming, it’ll have to resolve an issue that has repeatedly cost it close games down the stretch.