Strong Scores Career-High 30 as Gamecocks Beat LSU, 78-68

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Elijah Strong scored a career-high 30 points, and South Carolina built a big first-half lead that held off LSU for a 78-68 victory on Tuesday night.

South Carolina (10-5, 1-1 Southeastern Conference) rebounded from an 83-71 loss to Vanderbilt, while LSU (12-3, 0-2) has lost consecutive games.

The Gamecocks built a 25-point halftime advantage and led by double digits with about nine minutes left when LSU started a 12-3 run to pull to 66-60 with 6:22 remaining. Strong scored the next four points, and the Tigers didn’t get closer.

Strong shot 10 of 15 from the floor and made all four of his 3-point attempts. Meechie Johnson made three 3s and finished with 19 points for the Gamecocks. Eli Ellis chipped in with 10 points.

Max Mackinnon scored 15 points for LSU. Pablo Tamba and PJ Carter added 10 points for the Tigers. Mike Nwoko grabbed 13 rebounds to go with six points.

Strong scored 18 points, and Johnson added 15 to help give the Gamecocks a 50-25 halftime lead. Nine LSU players scored in the first half, but none had more than four points as the Tigers shot 29%.

KEY STATS

• The Gamecocks built a 25-point first half lead after making their first nine shots, including 6-of-6 from 3 with four coming from Elijah Strong.
• Despite giving up 17 offensive rebounds, Carolina was solid defensively limiting LSU to just 11 second chance points on its extra opportunities.

NOTABLES

• Elijah Strong had a career-high 30 points on an efficient 10-of-15 (66.7%) from the floor. He played a season-high 25 minutes and it marked just the fourth time this season he’s played over 20 minutes. Strong has started three consecutive games after starting the season on the bench for the first 12 contests.
• Meechie Johnson (19) and Eli Ellis (10) also scored in double-figures for Carolina. Johnson hit a trio of 3s and was 8-of-10 at the free throw line. He added a team-high six assists, tying his season high set last Saturday vs. No. 11/11 Vanderbilt. Ellis hit a huge 3-point basket with 2:44 to go to put the Gamecocks back in front by double digits, 75-63.
• The Gamecocks shot a season-high 57.1% (12-of-21) from behind the arc. The team improves to 7-0 under Paris when shooting above 50.0% from distance over the last four seasons.
• Carolina has just 10 turnovers in its first two games of SEC play to go alongside 32 assists, good for a 3.2:1 assist-to-turnover ratio.
• The Gamecocks’ 50-point first half was the first time Carolina scored 50 or more in a half since scoring 51 in the second half of a 82-76 home win over No. 24/24 Florida on March 2, 2024.
• Tonight’s victory was the first SEC road win for the Gamecocks since defeating Mississippi State, 93-89, in overtime in the 2023-24 regular season finale in Starkville. It also snapped a 10-game losing streak in true road games. Carolina’s last true road win was at Boston College last season on Dec. 3, 2024 (won 73-51 in the SEC/ACC Challenge).
• The Gamecocks are now 47-10 under Paris when holding teams below 70 points (.825 win %).
• Carolina is now 28-3 under Paris when holding its opponents below 40% shooting from the floor. The team was 7-0 last season and is 5-0 this season when accomplishing the defensive feat.

UP NEXT
Carolina returns home to face No. 18/20 Georgia (13-2, 1-1 SEC) on Saturday. Tip is set for 2 p.m. (ET) on ESPN2 with Roy Philpott (pxp) and Jon Crispin (analyst) on the call for the nationally televised game.

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