Dec. 1, 2014

Final Stats

HUNTINGTON, W.VA. – – In its first true road test of the season, the South Carolina men’s basketball team (4-3) passed the test on both ends of the floor in a 77-59 win over Marshall (3-4). Bolstered by a career-high 27 points from Duane Notice and a 41-20 advantage in points in the paint, the team led for nearly the entire game.

The Carolina defense hounded the Herd in the first half, limiting the home side to just seven percent from long range (1-of-14). Marshall wouldn’t fare much better from inside as it hit just 5-of-29 attempts overall in the first 20 minutes. The Gamecocks would counter with a two-man attack offensively to carry the team early on.

Notice scored the team’s first seven points of the game on a wide array of shots, from a pair of free throws to open the scoring to a layup that capped his one-man run and gave the team an early 7-3 lead. His efforts were the impetus for a 13-0 run that helped the Gamecocks seize a 15-3 lead. Laimonas Chatkevicius joined in on the offense to help the team extend that lead, each scoring 13 points as Carolina ran out to a 39-20 halftime lead.

The defensive intensity would not stay in the locker room after the break, with nine more turnovers forced. The Herd would shoot a respectable 40 percent in the final half, but still lacked the interior defense to slow down Carolina and relied on the charity stripe to score a third of its 39 second-half points. Despite a 1-of-9 second half from three, the Gamecocks scored on 13-of-20 two-point field goals in 20 minutes.

The closest Marshall would come in the second half was 16 points. When it managed to even get that close, an 8-0 run coming off a trio of Marshall turnovers gave Carolina a 61-37 lead with ten minutes left to play in the game, its largest of the day.

Along with Notice and Chatkevicius, who finished with 15 points on 7-of-9 shooting, Justin McKie and Sindarius Thornwell also scored in double figures. After setting or matching his career high in two of the last three games, McKie set an even higher mark with 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting. Thornwell combined his ten points with a team-high ten rebounds for his third career double-double.

On the defensive side, the Gamecocks forced 19 turnovers and held Marshall to 28 percent overall and 19 percent from three. The 20 first-half points allowed by Carolina were the least so far this season.

GAME CHANGER

Marshall would lead for all of 18 seconds in the game, as its 3-2 lead with 18:25 to play was wiped out by a 13-0 Carolina run over the next four minutes to take command of the game.

KEY STAT For the game, the Gamecocks hit over 60 percent of their two-point field goals (26-of-43) and scored 41 points in the paint.

NOTABLES

• The 18-point win is the largest margin of victory in a true road game since winning 84-58 at Princeton in 2008.
• Sindarius Thornwell led the team with 10 rebounds, a season-high and just one shy of his career high. He tallied his third career double-double.
• Junior forward Michael Carrera missed his second-straight game due to still experiencing concussion related symptoms.
• After matching his previous best against UNC Asheville, Justin McKie set a new career high with 12 points off the bench. It is his first career double-digit game, and it comes after scoring just nine points in 17 games as a freshman.

QUOTABLE South Carolina Head Coach Frank Martin

Opening Statement
Not one of our cleanest performances, but to know where we were at as a program a couple years ago and fast-forward a couple years and to be able to go on the road and play a Conference-USA opponent and be able to win was a step in the right direction for us. When you go on the road, you find out a lot about your players. They’re not in the confines of your gym and you find out who’s ready to go for you and obviously Duane did that for us today.

UP NEXT

South Carolina returns to Columbia to host Oklahoma State on Dec. 6, in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge. The meeting vs. the Cowboys marks the third all-time and the first in Columbia since the very first meeting in the series on Dec. 23, 1975. South Carolina head coach Frank Martin is 4-4 all-time vs. Oklahoma State. The Cowboys earned a 79-52 home win over the Gamecocks last season in the Challenge.

TWEETS OF THE GAME