Point guard's last-second layup puts Gamecocks over Alabama
With six minutes left in the game, USC coach Darrin Horn did something that is unlike his usual calm demeanor.
Horn turned to the crowd, flexed, red-faced and mimicking the motion of the Hulk, and then proceeded to yell and motion for the stands to rise to their feet. The crowd responded, but by the end of the night, they would need no urging.
"This team was playing their guts out," Horn said. "I know we hadn't been real good, but the effort was unbelievable. I don't think that's ever been a question. We need our fans. We need some atmosphere. They're important to what we do and I appreciate them finally getting up and doing that, but I think we all felt a sense of urgency."
Tied at 54, point guard Bruce Ellington drove the lane and made a layup, leaving just one second left on the clock and giving his team a 56-54 lead.
"We thought about running something over the top to the rim, but there wasn't a ton of time on the clock and you had to assume they were going to foul and try to waste a foul there," Horn said. "At the same time, you feel better when the ball is in [Ellington's] hands because not only could he go do what he did, but it puts pressure on the defense to where he could get it on the rim, you could offensive rebound, or he could find somebody. Both plays were for him to get the basketball and try to go make a play."
Alabama would get the last shot, but for the first time in SEC play this season, it was South Carolina that celebrated to a standing ovation when the buzzer sounded.
"After I saw it go in, I was excited because that was my first game-winner," Ellington said. "To have these guys have my back and come out there, it just made me really excited."
Alabama coach Anthony Grant said he had expected Ellington to take the last shot. For Grant, the loss was more than just the last sequence of plays.
"We play an entitled brand of basketball and it's very frustrating as a coach," Grant said. "For me, right now I have to self-evaluate what I'm doing as a coach when it consistently feels like winning is not the priority it needs to be on our team."
For the Gamecocks, there's nothing to reevaluate about their first complete 40-minute effort. Horn's team had just nine turnovers, as opposed to the 23 they had at Auburn. More importantly, there was no second half meltdown like there had been in the previous two outings, as the Gamecocks started the second half on a 7-1 run.
"I think it helped us a lot for the simple fact that we knew we had to come out to the second half playing hard," said forward Damontre Harris. "Just trying to control what we could control and just trying to compete. Staying focused, really."
On Tuesday, Horn had said that he wanted his team to have a chance with five minutes left in the game and he got just that, as the score was tied at 50 at the five-minute mark.
"It wasn't boring by any stretch," Horn said. "I think that it was one of those things that we needed to do to make the plays that we needed to make, especially down the stretch."
As USC enters the next stretch of conference play, it doesn't want to savor the win. It wants to do the exact opposite.
"We just want to go ahead and forget about this win right now," said forward Malik Cooke. "We'll get back to work tomorrow and focus on Ole Miss and try to get in there and compete."
And while the fans may have waited until the end of the game to start celebrating, the Gamecocks celebrated and fought throughout the game.On the sideline, Cooke, who finished with a game-high 18 points, chose to stand and coach alongside the actual coaches and yell out to his team, despite being covered in sweat and taking deep breathes. With 12:43 left in the game, Harris made a jumper, and was fouled in the act of shooting to go to the free throw line for one shot, which prompted Ellington to leap and slap the court.
"We just wanted to come in and be aggressive from the very beginning of the game," Cooke said. "We wanted to maintain it through 40 minutes and we did that tonight."
As he was leaving the locker room, Ellington was singing as he walked into the media room for interviews. It's something he said he does after every win.