Men's Basketball . November 18, 2023

South Carolina Defeats DePaul, 73-68, at Arizona Tip-Off

South Carolina Athletics

Game #1

GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Meechie Johnson scored 24 points Friday night and South Carolina never trailed in its 73-68 win over DePaul at the Arizona Tip-Off.

South Carolina (4-0) is off to its best start since the 2016-17 team, which lost 77-73 to Gonzaga in the Final Four, won its first eight games.

Johnson scored 12 points in a 20-6 run that gave the Gamecocks a 24-10 lead when he capped the spurt with a jumper and then a three-point play midway through the first half. South Carolina took a nine-point lead into intermission and stretched its lead to 58-44 when Benjamin Bosmans-Verdonk made a layup with 12:18 to play.

Elijah Fisher and K.T. Raimey each hit a 3-pointer as the Blue Demons scored 11 of 14 points to trim their deficit to six with 5 minutes to go and Da’Sean Nelson hit 1 of 2 free throws to make it 67-62 with 2:35 remaining. Johnson answered with two free throws 13 seconds and the Gamecocks, who shot just 59% (20 of 34) from the charity stripe, made 4 of 6 from the foul line from there to seal it.

Chico Carter Jr. — a native of Columbia and a graduate transfer from South Carolina — scored 24 points on 8-of-13 shooting for DePaul (1-3).

Zachary Davis added 10 points for the Gamecocks.

South Carolina plays Grand Canyon in the Cactus Division title game, and DePaul plays San Francisco in the third-place game, on Sunday.

KEY STAT

Carolina got effective minutes from its bench, outscoring DePaul 27-16. The Gamecocks were also plus-nine on the glass with a 38-29 advantage.

NOTABLES

South Carolina improves to 4-0 for the first time since the historic 2016-17 Final Four season.
Meechie Johnson had his fifth career 20-point game tonight and first of the 2023-24 season. Carolina is 4-1 when Johnson scores 20 or more points.
Zachary Davis scored in double figures for the first time this season and the second time in his career.

UP NEXT

The Gamecocks will face Grand Canyon (3-0) in the title game for the Cactus Division on Sunday at 7 p.m. (ET) with Jack Benjamin (pxp) and Matt McCall (analyst) on the call again.

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