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No. 20 South Carolina Wins, 72-59, at Ole Miss
Men's Basketball  . 

No. 20 South Carolina Wins, 72-59, at Ole Miss

South Carolina Athletics

The Gamecocks improve to 22-5 overall and pickup the team's 10th victory in SEC play (fifth on the road)

Final Box (PDF) Season Stats (PDF) Postgame Media (VIDEO)

OXFORD, Miss. (AP) — B.J. Mack scored 17 points and No. 20 South Carolina snapped a two-game losing skid with a 72-59 win over Mississippi on Saturday.

The victory helped the Gamecocks (22-5, 10-4 SEC) hold on to their spot among the top four teams in the conference giving them a shot at earning the double-bye in the conference tournament. They have four games left in the regular season.

South Carolina played solid defense and frustrated Ole Miss’ best scorer Matthew Murrell. The Rebels (19-8, 6-8) shot just 33% from the field. Murrell, who averages 17.3 points, got in early foul trouble, picking up two in the game’s first four minutes.

The Gamecocks led 36-22 at the half.

Ole Miss started playing better in the second half until Allen Flanigan was ejected after a flagrant foul with 16:53 left, and seconds later Murrell picked up his third foul. He finished with 10 points.

Flanigan had 11 points when he departed.

Jaemyn Brakefield’s 3-pointer with 11:32 left got the Rebels back within 11, but that was as close as the Rebels could get.

KEY STAT

  • The Gamecock defense held Ole Miss to a season-low 33.3 percent (18-for-54) from the field and tied a season-low allowing just three triples (3-for-16). Carolina allowed just 59 points, tying a season-low for the Rebels.

NOTABLES

  • Sophomore guard Zachary Davis recorded new career-highs in points (14) and rebounds (9) leading Carolina on the glass for the second time this season. Davis now has three double-figure scoring games this year and tied a season-high 31 minutes in his 10th start of the season.
  • Graduate forward B.J. Mack led the Gamecocks with 17 points on 6-of-13 shooting, notching his fourth consecutive game scoring in double-figures.
  • Four Gamecocks scored in double figures: Mack (17), Davis (14), Collin Murray-Boyles (12), and Jacobi Wright (10). Carolina improves to 7-0 on the year when Wright scores 10 or more.
  • Graduate guard Ta’Lon Cooper led the Garnet & Black with six helpers, notching his 18th game this season leading Carolina in passing. Cooper entered 8th nationally in assist-to-turnover ratio (3.48:1) and now has 11 games this year with 5+ assists.
  • Carolina has now held 22 opponents to less than 70 points this season, which is T-4th nationally and leads the SEC. The Gamecocks have held 11 league opponents below 70 points, which leads the SEC in front of Tennessee (8), Texas A&M (7) and Auburn (7).
  • The Gamecocks improve to 17-0 when scoring 70 or more points this season.
  • Carolina improves to 18-0 when outrebounding their opponent and 15-1 when having 15 or more assists as a team. Four Gamecocks grabbed 5 or more boards: Davis (9), Johnson (7), Cooper (7), and Murray-Boyles (5).
  • The win gives the Gamecocks 10 SEC wins, marking the eighth time in program history since joining the league in 1991-92 that the team has recorded double-digit league wins. The victory is also the team’s fifth SEC road win this season, which is T-2nd most all-time with the 2016-17 team.

UP NEXT

The Gamecocks (22-5, 10-4 SEC) will be on the road again with a trip to College Station to take on Texas A&M (15-11, 6-7 SEC) on Wednes­day. Tip-off is set for 8:30 p.m. (ET) on SEC Network with Kevin Fitzgerald (pxp) and Daymeon Fishback (analyst) on the call.

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