Men's Basketball . December 2, 2017

Silva gets hot late, South Carolina beats UMass 76-70

Game #1

Dec. 02, 2017

Men’s Basketball vs. UMASS

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) Freshman Justin Minaya scored 17 points, Chris Silva had 12 of his 14 points in the second half and South Carolina defeated UMass 76-70 on Saturday.

Silva, coming off a two-point performance in a Thursday loss to Temple at Madison Square Garden, was in foul trouble for most of the game. He and Maik Kotsar entered the game with 5:40 remaining with four fouls apiece and Silva delivered back-to-back dunks in 34 seconds to put USC up by six.

The Minutemen cut the advantage to two with 19.4 seconds remaining on a 3-pointer by Carl Pierre, but Hassani Gravett made four straight free throws to seal it.

Gravett finished with 14 points for South Carolina (6-2), while freshman Felipe Haase chipped in 11.

”The job me and my staff are doing right now is pathetic,” South Carolina coach Frank Martin said. ”We regressed this week. We’re a worse basketball team than we were eight days ago. That’s my job to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

Luwane Pipkins led UMass (3-5) with 25 and Pierre added 12. The Minutemen have lost four straight.

”I though our guys were prepared. I thought our guys were excited. I thought they were ready to play . but, in order to win a game like this, it starts with your approach every single day,” UMass coach Matt McCall said.

KEY STAT

The Gamecocks shot 51 percent (28-for-55) from the floor and turned it over just four times in the second half after coughing up the ball 11 times in the first 20 minutes.

NOTABLE

South Carolina is 6-0 in the 2017-18 season when scoring 70-plus points. In all six of the team’s wins, four players have scored in double figures.
Justin Minaya finished with a career-high 17 points. He went 6-for-11 from the field and led the team with 33 minutes. His six made rbaskets surpassed his previous single-game high of five.
Hassani Gravett scored a season-high 14 points and knocked down four big free throws late in the game. The redshirt junior point guard had four assists and zero turnovers.
Felipe Haase finished with career-highs in points (11) and rebounds (10) en route to notching his first career double-double. He played 29 minutes off the bench.

UP NEXT

South Carolina continues its homestand when Wyoming visits Columbia for a 7 p.m. ET matchup on Wednesday, Dec. 6. Wyoming head coach Allen Edwards played for Gamecock head coach Frank Martin at Miami Senior High, and he is also the brother of Gamecock staff member Doug Edwards. The contest will be broadcast on SEC Network+.