Dec. 30, 2015

Final Stats

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The South Carolina men’s basketball team took the court at Colonial Life Arena for the first time in over two weeks, hosting Francis Marion Wednesday night. The Gamecocks shook off some early rust and ran off to a 78-56 win against the Patriots. Chris Silva led the team with a season-high 13 points and all 15 members of the team would see action in the win. It is Carolina’s 12th-straight win, matching its longest win streak since the 1996-97 campaign.

Carolina connected on just one of its first six shots from the floor, but both teams would struggle offensively in the opening eight minutes of action. A 3-pointer from Francis Marion cut South Carolina’s lead to just three 12-9, at the 11:15 mark of the first half, but the visitors missed their next seven field goal attempts. The Gamecocks would heat up down the home stretch of the half, scoring 21 of their 38 total points in the final 6:18, shooting 7-of-9 as a team in that span.

Chris Silva and Duane Notice scored 10 points apiece to lead the team, with Silva providing a pair of highlight-reel slam dunks in the process. Eight different players scored for the Gamecocks in the first half. The Patriots finished just 6-of-30 from the field in the half, but were able to force South Carolina into 10 turnovers and recorded seven offensive rebounds to counter a slow half offensively.

The home side pushed the lead up to 25 early on in the second half, 53-28, and held on to a 20-point advantage for the remainder of the game. The lead would allow head coach Frank Martin to look to his talented reserves to get some valuable playing time. Ten players would come off the bench for the team and nine of them scored at least two points. Despite relying almost exclusively on its freshmen, the South Carolina offense put up 40 points in the second half to seal the big win.

GAMECHANGER

A hot streak to close out the first half broke the Gamecocks out of a lengthy slump. With just a 17-11 lead at the 6:50 mark, South Carolina made 7-of-9 field goal attempts from that point on to take a 38-20 lead into halftime.

KEY STAT

South Carolina’s bench accounted for 48 points on the night, a season high. Chris Silva led the reserves with 13 points, and the Gamecocks enjoyed a plus-16 margin over Francis Marion’s bench.

UP NEXT

South Carolina welcomes former Metro Conference foe Memphis to Colonial Life Arena on Saturday for a 6 p.m. matchup. The meeting is the 29th all-time between the two schools and the first since the 2004 NCAA Tournament. The contest will be televised on ESPNU with Roy Philpott (play-by- play) and Brooke Weisbrod (analyst) on the call.

NOTABLE

• Both teams would struggle with turnovers Wednesday night, with FMU committing 22 turnovers and Carolina 16. The difference would be points scored off turnovers — the Gamecocks enjoyed a 29-7 advantage in the category.
• Raymond Doby and John Ragin each scored their first collegiate points in the win. Doby finished with eight points and four rebounds in seven minutes of action, Ragin hit a layup in the closing seconds of action.
• Freshman Eric Cobb pulled down a season-high seven rebounds in just seven minutes of playing time.
• PJ Dozier led the team with five steals in the game, a new career high. The Gamecocks finished with a season-high 13 steals as a team.

TWEET OF THE GAME