After a 10-day hiatus, Gamecock men’s basketball got back in action, losing against LSU 85-80.
The team was without head coach Frank Martin, junior forward Alanzo Frink, sophomore forward Jalyn McCreary and two other assistant coaches on Saturday night.
Bruce Shingler made his head coaching debut in Baton Rouge after being an assistant coach under Frank Martin at USC for five years.
Junior guard AJ Lawson found success in the opening minutes of the game. Before the second media timeout, he hit three 3-pointers and a dunk, giving the Gamecocks a double-digit lead early.
Junior forward Keyshawn Bryant had two big blocks in sequence during that stretch, and he ended with a career-high four on the day.
“We treated it like Frank was here. Energy was the same,” Bryant said postgame.
However, LSU went on an 11-2 run and cut the Gamecock lead down to two just after the next media timeout.
It was back-and-forth for the remainder of the half, and the Gamecocks took a 38-34 lead at the break.
AJ Lawson led the way with 18 points, and the Gamecocks led for the fifth straight game at halftime.
In the second half, South Carolina stretched its lead out to 9, but then a 9-3 Tiger run tied the game up.
A Bryant three and alley-oop extended the Gamecock lead out to five at the media timeout. Bryant had a career-high 26 points on the game.
South Carolina held onto its lead for a little while longer before a Javonte Smart 3-pointer at the 12:09 mark. It was back-and-forth for the next couple of minutes before the Gamecocks finished 1-13 from the field.
After leading for 33 minutes of the game, South Carolina finished seven and a half minutes without a field goal.
“I’ll look back at the film; I'll probably kick myself in the tail for some things,” Shingler said postgame. “It’s a learning experience for me.”
CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein tweeted postgame that Shingler was doing “yeoman’s work."
South Carolina will play at Missouri on Tuesday at 7 p.m.