Bruce Ellington leads second half surge against Blue Hose
With just under 14 minutes left to play in the game, point guard Bruce Ellington fist-pumped with glee following a basket and free throw play by Malik Cooke.
He knew the comeback was complete, both for him personally and for the Gamecocks against the Blue Hose, as South Carolina rallied to beat Presbyterian 66-58.
Just two minutes earlier, Ellington gave his team the first lead of the night, getting a steal, layup, and the foul shot all in one swift possession. Cooke’s play minutes later would give the Gamecocks a nine-point lead and complete USC’s second half surge.
Ellington finished with a team-high 15 points in his best game since returning to basketball on Dec. 1. He was singing as he walked into the postgame interview with reporters. Cooke would say that he felt the mood change during the game, and similarly, there was a mood change in Ellington.
“I just went with the flow,” Ellington said. “We were down and then we made that run, and I just knocked down some shots.”
Shots were hard to come by for the Gamecocks in the first half, as they went 7-29 from the field, though taking just five attempts from beyond-the-arc. USC was able to get in the paint, but would miss easy baskets. The Gamecocks trailed the Blue Hose by as many as 14 points.
“It’s just tough when you’re that close to the basket and you work that hard to get so close and get close positioning, and you just have a mental lapse or the ball just doesn’t go in,” Cooke said. “Sometimes that gets tough on you, but it’s something that we have to fight through and it can’t determine how we play in the second half.”
What was South Carolina coach Darrin Horn’s halftime message to the team after the poor shooting?
“It’s make a layup,” Horn said. “It’s Division I basketball – make a layup!”
It was as if a different team was on the court for the second half, as the Gamecocks shot 19-27 from the field, making four 3-pointers on six attempts. As USC shot better, Presbyterian shot worse, going just 11-25 from the field.
“We just came out in the second half with a little bit more energy and emotion,” Cooke said. “I think that carried over. We started making some easy baskets around the rim and that really got us going.”
Horn, who said that his team wasn’t going to be boring after it had to come from behind to beat Mississippi Valley State, knows that first-half struggles come with a young team that seems to grow up a little through the course of each game.
“I think it’s part of the maturing process for this team,” Horn said. “We can’t let how something is going dictate how we’re going to play. Ultimately, defensively, we were good enough in the first half that we didn’t leave ourselves too big of a hole. We got going in the second half, but we’ve got to understand that we’ve got to figure out a way to that early when it’s not going our way.”
As the Gamecocks began to get more comfortable on offense in the second half, Ellington got more comfortable on the court. Eight of his points came in the second half, as well as all three of his assists. He didn’t turn the ball over once after halftime.
For Ellington, the change came as a result of the break during, which gave him time to sharpen his basketball skills.
“This week in practice I got in the gym a lot with the guys and they were backing me up and just kept telling me to keep my confidence up,” Ellington said. “I just went out there and played, and coach Horn just told me to keep playing, and that’s what I did.”
The Gamecocks were able to see a change in themselves over the course of a break, too. Though it was just 20 minutes in between two long stretches of playing basketball, it was as if a whole new team stepped onto the court.