The Gamecocks from South Carolina defeated the Gamecocks of Jacksonville State by the score of 56-49 in Columbia. It was a much needed win to close out 2010 for USC and move their overall record to 8-3 and 7-0 at home. The Gamecocks were led by Ramon Galloway in scoring as he put in 15 points on 41% shooting in 23 minutes, including 12 from three point range. Also South Carolina got better production from Sam Muldrow, which is a positive to build from going forward with the BC Eagles coming to town on Jan. 1st to kickoff 2011.
Let’s break this game down a bit further —
This win ended a two-game losing streak for USC. It can be contributed to a SC second half 17-5 run to push the lead to 18 points, the largest of the game. Also to be honest it helped that Jacksonville State played without their leading scorer and rebounder Nick Murphy, who was stranded in New York after a snow storm blanketed the Northeast this week.
Positives:
—Sam Muldrow recorded the 7th double digit rebound game of his career.
—SC shot 78% from the FT line.
—South Carolina also got 25 defensive boards compared to only 18 for Jacksonville State.
Negatives:
—South Carolina’s leading scorer Bruce Ellington, who was coming off a career-high 31 points in the loss to Furman last week, was held to seven points. Evident that he has to step-up each and every night to aid the efforts of the team.
—Need to continue to take good shots and work the ball to the inside. Don’t put so much emphasis on three ball but if you do then you got to shoot better than 5-19.
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Quote from the Coach that tells the truth:
“I don’t know that we played great, but we saw some really positive signs on how we moved the basketball,” Horn said. “Our total defensive effort was (great). I thought we did some good things that we can build on.”
Not sure how I feel about the Gamecocks changing their starting lineup for the first time this season with Damontre Harris starting in the spot held by Malik Cooke (Harris-Jackson-Muldrow-Richardson-Ellington). I like what Cooke brings to the game on the rebounding side but Harris did play nicely in this game.
Well a win is a win as they always say. Next up – BC Eagles.
