The Recap: LSU Basketball Captures 81-67 SEC Victory Over South Carolina Gamecocks

BATON ROUGE, La. – The LSU Tigers racked up its third SEC victory and second consecutive win by securing its largest margin of victory over an SEC opponent, an 81-67 drumming over South Carolina. The Tigers knocked down 13 3-point field goals in the win, a season-high in SEC games.

LSU is now 14-12 on the season and 3-10 in the SEC, while South Carolina falls to 10-16 and is still looking for its first win in conference plays, standing at 0-13. The Tigers continue their home stand with a 5 p.m. CT game on Feb. 22 against No. 2 Florida.

The Tigers have made double-digit 3-point field goals for the eighth time this season and finished the game shooting 50.0 from the field (31-62), including a 43.3 clip from behind the arc (13-30), both of which are season-highs in conference games. LSU forced 18 turnovers, matched a season-best 12 steals and converted them into 23 points.

Cam Carter led LSU with 17 points (7-14) and knocked down three triples. Carter also had four rebounds, two steals and an assist. Mike Williams III dropped a season-high 13 points on 3-of-5 shooting, 3-of-4 from deep and 2-of-2 at the free throw line. Vyctorius Miller (12) and Dji Bailey (11) rounded out the top scorers for LSU, and Daimion Collins had eight points and a team-high seven rebounds.

Jamarii Thomas scored a game-high 23 points on 9-of-16 shooting for South Carolina, and Collin Murray-Boyles finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds in the loss.

After South Carolina scored the opening bucket, LSU scored 10 of the next 12 points and held a 14-11 lead at the under 12-minute media timeout. The Tigers continued to shoot the ball well during the ensuing four-minute stretch as they rattled off a 15-4 run, including a 10-0 burst where the home team shot 6-of-6 from the floor to build a 31-18 margin.

Carter went on a personal 7-2 run to give LSU its largest lead of the half at 38-22 and went into intermission with a 14-point 41-27 lead. In the first 20 minutes, LSU shot 57.1 percent from the field (16-28), including six triples (6-13). The Tigers’ defense was stout in the opening half, forcing nine turnovers, including six steals, and had five blocks led by Corey Chest’s three swats.

An early 7-0 by South Carolina cut LSU’s lead to single digits, but Curtis Givens III knocked down a 3-pointer, and Bailey hit a mid-range bucket to push the lead back to 48-34. The Gamecocks trimmed the lead to single digits again behind an 8-3 run, but the Tigers halted their momentum due to an 8-0 run sparked by two 3-pointers by Carter, making the score 59-42 with 11:23 on the clock.

The Bayou Bengals went on to lead by as many as 21 points at 69-48 behind an 18-5 run before South Carolina’s final push, an 11-4 run, made the score 73-59. However, LSU responded by scoring eight of the following 10 points to get the lead back to 20 at 81-61 with 3:19 remaining in the game. LSU emptied its bench for the remainder of the game and won 81-67.

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