March 21, 2016

Final Stats

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The 2015-16 South Carolina men’s basketball season came to an end Monday night in the second round of the NIT, as the Gamecocks (25-9) lost 83-66 to Georgia Tech (21-14). Michael Carrera finished his season as strong as he started it, leading the team in scoring and rebounds, but the Yellow Jackets pulled away early behind the 3-ball.

Georgia Tech brought physicality early in the game and was able to take the Gamecocks out of one of their strongest qualities right away. The Yellow Jackets held South Carolina without a rebound for the first 17 minutes of the half, two total in the opening period, and held a 21-12 overall advantage in rebounds for the first 20 minutes.

There weren’t many rebounds to be had in the opening 10 minutes of the game, as Georgia Tech opened 9-of-14 from the field with four 3s and ran out to a 22-11 lead. An 11-1 run from the 10:39 mark until 4:38 was left to play put the visitors ahead by their widest margin of the half, 33-16, and GT carried a 42-28 lead to the locker rooms. Laimonas Chatkevicius led the team with nine points and five rebounds, and South Carolina shot 43 percent in the period.

The Yellow Jackets would extend the lead up to 20 straight out of the break, using a 7-0 run to start the half to go ahead 49-28 and force a Gamecock timeout. Michael Carrera broke the seal with a basket three minutes in, but Georgia Tech’s proficiency from 3 continued to stymie South Carolina. The visitors hit three 3s in the first three minutes of action and would hold a comfortable lead the rest of the way.

Michael Carrera scored 12 second-half points in his final game in a Gamecock uniform, and hit 800 career rebounds as well. PJ Dozier scored 12 points in the second half as well, hitting all five of his field goal attempts to finish with 16 to tie his career high. Georgia Tech shot 54 percent in the second half (14-of-26) and finished the game at 50.8 percent.

GAMECHANGER

3-point shooting would help the Yellow Jackets take over the lead early and then extend it during the second half. They shot 50 percent for the game (11-22) for the game and were led by Adam Smith’s five makes. It was the second-highest opponent 3-point percentage of the season, second only to Hofstra’s 50.9 percent on Nov. 22.

KEY STAT

Georgia Tech held a sizable advantage in rebounds from wire-to-wire, finishing the game plus-18 (39-21). The difference would come in the first half, where the Yellow Jackets held Carolina off the offensive glass for the first 17 minutes while building up their double-digit lead. The 21 rebounds is a season low for South Carolina. The previous low was 32 against USF and Texas A&M.

NOTABLE

• The team’s 25 wins this season are good for the most in program history, tied with the 1969-70 team. The 24 regular-season wins are a new school record.
• This was South Carolina’s first meeting with Georgia since 1984. The Yellow Jackets now own a 25-18 advantage in the all-time series.
• Michael Carrera ends his career in the Garnet and Black with 1,143 career points and 800 career rebounds. Those totals rank 29th and sixth, respectively, in school history. He is the sixth Gamecock in school history to reach 800 rebounds.
• Laimonas Chatkevicius finished his Gamecock career on a high note, averaging 18.5 points and 5.0 rebounds per game in the NIT. In the program record book, he finishes 10th in school history for blocks (with 108).
• Mindaugas Kacinas ends his career at Carolina as one of the most efficient players in school history. His career field goal percentage of .531 puts him 10th in school history, the first Gamecock to finish in the top-10 for that category since Renaldo Balkman in 2006.

TWEET OF THE GAME