Vanderbilt tops South Carolina 83-74 behind Pippen in finale

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Scotty Pippen Jr. tied a career high with 21 points and Maxwell Evans added 20, leading Vanderbilt to back-to-back wins for the first time since December with an 83-74 victory over South Carolina in a regular-season finale on Saturday.

Pippen hit a career-high 15 of 16 from the foul line.

Saben Lee added 19 points for the Commodores (11-20, 3-15 SEC), who beat Alabama on Monday.

Lee erupted for a career-high 38 points in his previous game.

He scored the game’s first basket, but then missed seven straight shots from the floor before heating up in the second half.

South Carolina narrowed the deficit to 72-68 on two foul shots by Trae Hannibal with 2:04 left, but that was as close as it got.

Commodores freshman Dylan Disu scored 14 points and 6-foot-10 Ejike Obinna grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds.

South Carolina (18-13, 10-8 SEC) lost for the fourth time in six games.

Jermaine Couisnard fouled out with 1:29 left with 13 points for the Gamecocks.

South Carolina’s Keyshawn Bryant had 13 points and seven rebounds. Hannibal scored 11.

South Carolina missed 12 of 13 shots from 3-point range.

Vanderbilt trailed by two points at halftime before opening the second half with a 15-6 run.

Vanderbilt finished strong in the first half, narrowing the deficit to 35-33.

KEY STATS
> South Carolina was just 1-for-13 (7.7 percent) from behind the arc.
> Vanderbilt led the final 19:02 of the game after trailing for a majority of the first half. The Commodores shot 51.7 percent (15-for-29 FGs) in the second half.

NOTABLES
> Redshirt freshman Jermaine Couisnard and sophomore Keyshawn Bryant led the team with 13 points. Bryant, who has scored in double-figures now in each of the past five games, also pulled down a team-high seven rebounds.
> Freshman Trae Hannibal matched a career-high with 11 points in 20 minutes off the bench.
> Redshirt sophomore Justin Minaya returned to action today for the Gamecocks after missing the last nine games with a hand/wrist injury. He logged 17 minutes off the bench and scored eight points (3-for-3 FGs) with four rebounds, a steal and a block.

UP NEXT
South Carolina awaits final seeding for next week’s SEC Tournament, which is set for March 11-15 at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. Continue to visit GamecocksOnline.com for updates.

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