SC overwhelmed the Tigers with its size and length, pounding the ball inside, creating easy baskets and getting Auburn in foul trouble.
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That isn’t the story. I wish we could’ve been guaranteed a bid in the (NCAA) tournament.
Top-seeded SC faces No. 16/16 Mississippi State, the tournament’s third seed, in the SEC Championship game on Sun., March 6, at 2:30 p.m. on ESPN.
Georgia had issues valuing the basketball, coughing it up 19 times.
“Horrible loss emotionally. Just another game we let slip”, Arkansas guard Anthlon Bell said. Johnson’s eight conference wins are the most by a first-year head coach since Wimp Sanderson recorded 10 in the 1980-81 season.
“They were the more aggressive team”, Arkansas coach Mike Anderson said about SC. I’m real proud of our team for coming in here and beating a team of that caliber. “I really, really love our team”, Mitchell said. “Missing lay-ups. Defenisve assignments we were a step slow”. USC sank a season-high 12 3s, four from Mitchell and three from Bianca Cuevas.
Both will graduate with a degree in housing, but both are looking to play in the NBA, Saturday marked a bittersweet moment, despite the win.
After Morgan William and Dominique Dillingham hit baskets, Vivians scored five consecutive points to push the lead to 52-43 with 3:16 remaining.
Kentucky led one time for 21 seconds early in the game.
Mindaugas Kacinas led SC with 18 points and 5 rebounds, as he gave the Gamecocks a legitimate chance toward the end, threatening Georgia’s defense on the perimeter. The Hogs are also a 3 point favorite at home.
There was a spell halfway through the second half when the crowd came to its feet to cheer. Kentucky found their footing offensively in the second quarter, but the Gamecocks would not relent on the offensive end, carrying a 42-13 lead into halftime after Sessions’ 3 closed out the period. Maybe that’s because doubters emerged after the third-ranked Gamecocks played their worst game of the season. Then after an airball, he grabbed his own miss. Bell and Hannahs were the only guards who scored in double digits for the Razorbacks.
In what may have been their most important game of the year, they did not. The crowd left not angry, but disappointed. It fell short, however, as the Razorbacks ultimately lost to SC on Saturday afternoon by a score of 76-61.
South Carolina, meanwhile, put an emphatic finish on a regular season that started 15-0 before late-season struggles that saw them lose four of six games entering Saturday.
“Shannon Hale scored 25 points, which is great, but look at his rebound line on the stat sheet (zero)”, Johnson said.
“Fortunately for us our season is not over”, Epps said. We have time to learn from this one. Our offense is not designed around one player. “But we need a community effort to replace his personality, we need a community effort to replace his rebounding …” “It’s one loss in the SEC Tournament”.
Frank Martin’s team will be in the NCAAs… but is a double-digit seed in the cards now? The Gamecocks finished tied for the third in the league, earning the No. 3-seed and a double-bye thanks to owning the tiebreaker over LSU and Vanderbilt.
“It was a tough loss, back to back senior nights”.
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At this point, we can officially say that SC is playing to the level of their opponents down the stretch. The Gamecocks are now 4-10 all-time at Bud Walton Arena. Last time fans get to see us play here.
