South Carolina didn’t do a lot of things right while finishing next-to-last in the SEC basketball standings.
But the Gamecocks are good at shooting 3-pointers and free throws, thanks in large part to guard Brenton Williams, and also are adept at collecting their misses.
The Gamecocks parlayed those strengths into a 74-56 victory against Auburn in the opening game of the SEC tournament Wednesday night at the Georgia Dome. No. 13-seed South Carolina (13-19) advanced to play fifth-seeded Arkansas (21-10) in the second round Thursday.
Soon after the game, Auburn announced it had fired coach Tony Barbee after four seasons. Barbee was 48-75, including 18-50 in SEC play, with no league tournament victories.
“I believe we should compete for championships in men’s basketball,” Auburn AD Jay Jacobs said in a statement released by the school. “It’s time for somebody else to have a turn. We need to find somebody to come in here and take what we have here now and put some more in and compete for SEC titles.”
In a news conference immediately the game Barbee said he’d been given no indication about his job status and said he deserved to return.
“What do you want me to say? Absolutely I do,” Barbee said. “But that’s not in my hands.”
Auburn ended its season with a 14-16 record.
The Gamecocks won their first SEC tournament game since 2008.
“It definitely feels good to get South Carolina’s first win in the tournament in quite some time,” Williams said. “We are going to go into game against Arkansas and try to build on it and duplicate what we did today.”
Williams scored 16 points while making four of six 3-point attempts and all four of his free-throw tries. That’s typical for Williams, who ranked second in the SEC in 3-point shooting and first in free-throw percentage.
The Gamecocks got an unexpected jolt from freshman reserve Duane Notice. He scored a season-high 23 points with 4-for-4 shooting on 3-pointers and added five offensive rebounds.
“Our scouting report on him is he’s a driver,” Auburn forward Allen Payne said. “He got hot and made some shots from the perimeter.”
Mindaugas Kacinas led the Gamecocks with 10 rebounds, and Laimonas Chatkevicius had nine.
Auburn won both meetings against South Carolina during the regular season but never challenged after halftime Wednesday. South Carolina made 11 of 15 3-point attempts and pounded the Tigers 39-25 on the boards with 17 offensive rebounds.
“We probably played as well as we have all year,” Gamecocks coach Frank Martin said. “Now we get to live another day and that’s all you can ask for this time of year.”
South Carolina ranked tied for first in the SEC in 3-point percentage (37), compared with 43.8 percent on two-point field goals, and is among the best offensive rebounding teams in the country. That means usually South Carolina’s best strategy to score is launching 3-pointers and chasing down any misfires.
The Gamecocks did both to take control against the Tigers.
Williams and Notice led South Carolina’s sizzling shooting. Williams made four of six 3-point attempts, and Notice sank all three of his attempts to boost the Gamecocks to a 38-26 halftime lead.
South Carolina rebounded nine of its 14 missed shots in the half and converted nine second-chance points. The Gamecocks held a 20-11 rebounds advantage in the first half.
Auburn’s high-scoring guard duo of K.T. Harrell and Chris Denson couldn’t match Williams and Notice.
Denson, from Columbus, was the SEC’s No. 2 scorer during the regular season at 19.2 points per game, but was held to 14 against the Gamecocks. Harrell, the league’s No. 6 scorer, made three of six 3-point tries in the first half, but faded to a 4-for-13 finish from the field.
Harrell and Denson combined to score a total of 83 points in the first two games against South Carolina.
“We did a better job containing them (this time) and it threw them off their team a little bit,” Williams said. “It distracted them a little bit and we were able to get runs the other way.”
With Williams the only Gamecocks starter able to find the basket early, Notice provided a boost off the bench. Two of Notice’s trio of 3-pointers in the first half came at the shot-clock buzzer to salvage fizzling Gamecocks possessions.
Notice’s driving score in transition gave the Gamecocks a 25-19 lead. South Carolina pushed the lead to 30-21 on a 3-pointer and two free throws by Brenton Williams and was up 38-26 after back-to-back 3-pointers from Williams near halftime.
The Gamecocks kept burying 3-pointers after halftime. Back-to-back shots by Michael Carrera and Sindarius Thornwell extended South Carolina’s lead to 44-26, and Auburn couldn’t get the deficit to less than 12 from there.
Auburn point guard Tahj Shamsid-Deen, a freshman from Columbia High, was 1-for-8 from the field and finished with four points.
About the Author
