Michael Carrera led the Gamecocks with 19 points while Thornwell (15), P.J. Dozier (12) and Duane Notice (15) joined him in double figures.
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Despite matching up with perhaps their most physical opponent of the season to date, the Gamecocks went to their bread and butter early, slashing to the basket to take a 16-2 lead just five minutes into the game, forcing a timeout.
South Carolina’s 6-0 start to the season is the best start since the 2003-04 Gamecocks began the year 8-0.
Senior center Jaleel Cousins had 13 points and 13 rebounds while senior guard Nehemiah Morillo scored 10 for South Florida (2-7), which stumbled to a 35.3 percent shooting night (24-of-68). “Don’t take the game off. We did the complete opposite”.
The team improved to 8-0, which is the longest season-opening winning streak for a USC team since the 1970-71 squad that claimed the Atlantic Coast Conference title. “I thought, over the course of the game, we did more of that”.
“Our guards didn’t help the bigs at all tonight”, said Thornwell. “We got to do a better job of getting in there and rebounding”.
Today’s matchup is believed to be the first-ever meeting between two team’s coached by first-generation Hispanic Americans. “We want to demonstrate and show that we’re capable of being an example to younger coaches, younger kids”.
South Florida took steps to re-sign Taggart after McMurphy reported Friday that the 39-year-old had interviewed for South Carolina’s head coaching job. Rouco is now a USF assistant…. The No. 2 Gamecocks women’s team hosts No. 14 Duke on Sunday.
In three years as head coach at South Florida, he has turned the struggling program around.
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The Gamecocks return to action December 15th when they host Drexel.
