NEXT UP: Don’t expect a Dabo Swinney-type transition from interim to permanent head coach for South Carolina’s Shawn Elliott this season. However, the Gamecocks are having a dismal season, and it’s more wishful thinking that a possibility.
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But Laimonas Chatkevicius scored 17 points and Duane Notice added 16 to lead six SC players in double figures in a 92-76 victory over Lipscomb Friday afternoon.
“All we’ve gotten done so far is in the rear-view mirror”, Swinney said Tuesday.
The Tigers, though, have rolled on offense – they’ve had seven straight games with 500 or more yards – behind sublime sophomore quarterback Deshaun Watson.
“We faced the facts, exactly what had happened, what’s been going on and what we got to do to move forward”, Elliott said.
Even the players agreed with Martin’s assessment. Watson was able to find Jordan Leggett for an 11-yard gain that took the ball down to the USC 36.
The game begins at noon at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia.
The top-ranked Tigers were getting everything they could handle from a 3-8 SC team that a week earlier turned in a lifeless performance in a loss to The Citadel. All of whom experienced this year’s hardships, from the Charleston Church shooting to the SC floods.
No. 11 NORTH CAROLINA 45, N.C. STATE 34: In Raleigh, North Carolina, Elijah Hood and T.J. Logan ran for touchdowns in a dominating first quarter for North Carolina. In 2012, John L. Smith dumped his new job as head coach at Weber State to go back to Arkansas where he had been special teams coach for three seasons after the Razorbacks fired Bobby Petrino.
“They are going to approach this game harder than any other game”, he said. “One of their staples was half of their shots are three-pointers”. The South Carolina Gamecocks are 3-5 and 4-4 against the spread.
“It changes the rhythm of what we try to do”, he said. We didn’t come here for that.
SC vs. Clemson – Game Line: The Tigers are the 17-point favorites; the total is 55 points. Notice scored five points and Chris Silva added four during the run. Kessler’s 4-yard touchdown pass to Taylor McNamara pushed the lead to 40-21 with 6:18 left. Part of me wants to believe these Gamecocks can fight to the end like the A&M, Tennessee, and Florida games, but I wouldn’t put money on it. On a potentially positive note, Chris Clark points out here that Clemson hasn’t exactly blown out inferior opponents, beating Syracuse and Wake Forest by a combined 30 points. We’ve been in that situation before when we needed to score or make a play and the guys stepped up and made some big plays.
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Henry tied Herschel Walker and Bo Jackson for the most 200-yard games in a season in SEC history after his fourth in his last five conference games. The Jackson, Mississippi native was 8-of-11 from the floor including 5-of-7 from beyond the arc for his 20 career, 20-plus point game.
