A stumbling South Carolina team pitted against a Georgia team that was without its top scorer and rebounder Saturday afternoon produced a perfect storm for the Gamecocks to win their second conference game, 67-50.
The Gamecocks (11-9, 2-6 SEC), losers of four straight, held the Bulldogs to 22 percent from the field, which is the lowest offensive output by Georgia this season.
Georgia’s senior forward Marcus Thornton was forced to sit Saturday’s contest out after sustaining a concussion Tuesday night against Vanderbilt.
“I feel bad for Mark (Fox). They’ve got a real good basketball team,” head coach Frank Martin said. “Marcus Thornton, you could argue, is the most productive big guy in the league. Losing someone like that is not easy to do.”
South Carolina sparked a 10-0 run after Georgia sank a pair of three-pointers early in the first half of play. The Gamecocks’ offense was as efficient as it has been all season, posting 13 assists and allowing four players to reach the double-digit point plateau.
Junior forward Laimonas Chatkevicius led South Carolina’s offensive output with 12 points, followed by sophomore guard Duane Notice who had 11 points and senior guard Ty Johnson and sophomore guard Sindarius Thornwell who each finished with 10 points.
South Carolina outscored Georgia 8-0 in fast break points in the first half and led by as many as 15 before the break. The Gamecocks sustained a double-digit lead for all but 163 seconds of the second half.
Junior forward Michael Carrera finished with eight points but was once again a presence on the boards. Carrera pulled down a team-high nine rebounds and now has at least eight rebounds in five of his last six games.
Martin applauded Carrera’s effort in his latest matchup after the game, noting that the junior from Barcelona, Venezuela offers certain intangibles that the team needs.
“You need that toughness,” Martin said. “He grabbed some big boy rebounds today. He grabbed some man rebounds today. You need that edge, you need that energy, that enthusiasm.”
But Martin also finds himself reminding his forward to stay focused on the game, calling his energy a “double-edged sword.”
“But the problem is that the more you allow that energy to come out of him, the more he allows that energy to take him to the stands,” Martin said. “Where he starts trying to talk to the students, to the referees and then it gets him out of what we’re trying to do. So, that’s the tug-of-war between Mike and me.”
Like Georgia, South Carolina has also been plagued by concussion problems. Sophomore forward Demetrius Henry and sophomore guard Justin McKie each missed their second straight game while dealing with concussion-related symptoms.