Gamecocks Overcome Adversity, Win 79-77 Nail-Biter Over Virginia Tech
The South Carolina Gamecocks came into Friday looking to start 2-0 for the third straight season in a row. In order to accomplish that, they were gonna have to defeat a Virginia Tech Hokies squad that had just made the tournament two seasons ago. They managed to do just that, winning 79-77 over Mike Young's squad.
In the first eight minutes of the ball game, it was a back-and-forth affair. The Gamecocks struggled to keep up with the Hokies' guards, particularly Sean Pedulla, who constantly got dribble penetration and kicked it out to his teammates, or was able to create enough space to get his own shot off. The saving grace for South Carolina in that same stretch was their three-point shooting, as Ta'Lon Cooper and Myles Stute hit two shots each from behind the arc, giving Paris' squad a one-point lead heading into the second media timeout.
From the 14:00 minute mark to the 7:30 mark, Carolina would hold Virginia Tech to just two points thanks in large part to their persistence in fighting through the Hokies' screens. This long scoring drought helped the Gamecocks extend their to as large as ten points.
After the third media timeout at the 6:26 mark, the Hokies made a clear change in strategy, deciding to feed the ball more to their big men on the low block, and attack a depleted Carolina frontcourt hoping to get some buckets at the rim and or draw some fouls. This strategy would put a slight dent in Carolina's lead, but some Meechie Johnson buckets would give the Gamecocks a 38-31 lead going into the halftime break.
At the beginning of the second half, Virginia Tech would grab the early momentum, cutting Carolina's lead down to three thanks to a couple of three-point jumpers from Sean Pedulla. This would then be followed up by a prolonged stretch of figurative punches and counter punches between both teams, with the paint area remaining the primary attacked the paint consistently.
While the Gamecocks had to earn their points the hard way more often than not, Virginia Tech was was able to live at the free throw line in second half, getting 22 attempts for the game compared to South Carolina's 8. In spite of all of that, the Gamecocks overcome the odds at the end of the game, with BJ Mack scoring from the low block with 20 seconds remaining and a defensive stop giving Carolina the victory, and Lamont Paris' 100th career win.
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