Kentucky Pulls Away Late to Beat South Carolina, 72-63

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Denzel Aberdeen scored 19 points, Mouhamed Dioubate had 12 points and a key block down the stretch, and Kentucky beat South Carolina 72-63 on Tuesday night to end a three-game skid.

Kentucky (18-10, 9-6 SEC) secured its first win at South Carolina since the 2021-22 season.

The Wildcats had their lead trimmed to 59-57 with 2:43 left when Mike Sharavjamts made a wide-open 3-pointer, off a nice drive and pass from Meechie Johnson. But Kentucky scored the next 10 points to pull away.

Malachi Moreno made a driving layup to give Kentucky a 61-57 lead and a block by Dioubate led to a Collin Chandler 3-pointer for a seven-point lead. South Carolina was off on a 3-pointer and Aberdeen added two free throws with 1:29 left for a nine-point advantage.

Andrija Jelavic added 11 points, Chandler finished with 10 points and Moreno had 11 rebounds for Kentucky. The Wildcats outrebounded South Carolina 48-28, including an 18-5 edge on the offensive end.

Johnson led South Carolina (12-16, 3-12) with 18 points. Sharavjamts added 12 points and Elijah Strong scored 11.

South Carolina was just 7-of-28 shooting in the first half (25%) to trail 28-21. But the Gamecocks made 10 of their first 16 shots of the second half to tie it at 48-all with 8 minutes left.

KEY STATS

• The Gamecocks were 3-for-12 from the floor in the final 2 minutes and change after Sharavvjamts’ 3 cut the Wildcat lead to just two, 59-57, with 2:43 remaining.
• Carolina falls to 0-5 when shooting less than 39% from the field this season as it shot just 36.8% (21-of-57) tonight.
• The Wildcats scored 18 points off their 11 turnovers forced and also held a 26-7 edge in fastbreak points.

NOTABLES

• Redshirt senior Meechie Johnson finished with a team-high 18 points, six assists, four rebounds and three steals in another solid all-around performance/
• It was his 14th game this season with five or more assists and his sixth game with three or more steals.
• The Cleveland, Ohio native now has 14 consecutive games in double-figures. He’s scored 10 or more a team-leading 22 times this season and is averaging 19.8 points per game in 15 SEC games.
• Senior Mike Sharavjamts (12) and junior Elijah Strong (11) also finished in double figures for the Gamecocks. Sharavjamts led the team with five rebounds.
• For the second straight game, the Gamecocks limited one of the nation’s top scoring guards as Otega Oweh had just eight points on 3-of-13 (23.1%) shooting. He entered today averaging 21.2 points per game this season in SEC play. Tonight was just the fourth time in 64 career games at Kentucky Oweh has not scored in double-figures.

UP NEXT
South Carolina is back on the road with a trip to Athens on deck to face Georgia (19-8, 7-7 SEC) for the second time this season. Tip is set for 3:30 p.m. (ET) on Saturday with Mike Morgan (pxp) and Pat Bradley (analyst) on the call for SEC Network.

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