'I live for those moments': Meechie Johnson saves Gamecocks with career performance

The crowd chanted his name as tears welled up in his eyes. Meechie Johnson had dreams of playing again at South Carolina; he was living in one.

“Right now, I’m just so emotional,” Johnson told the SEC Network crew as a group of Gamecock fans shouted his name a few rows behind him. “That’s what you come back for. God is good.”

Johnson had already experienced the emotions of his first game back at Colonial Life Arena earlier in the week. What came in the following game was a heroic comeback effort to save the Gamecocks from the jaws of defeat.

When it looked like all hope was lost, the fifth-year guard stepped up big time. Johnson scored a career-high 33 points in a come-from-behind 83-79 overtime win over Southern Miss on Sunday.

READ HERE: South Carolina survives Southern Miss in overtime for second straight win

South Carolina trailed by 11 points with less than four minutes to go. It looked all but certain that the Gamecocks would lose a Quad 4 game in November, one that would derail their season. Then Johnson did the unthinkable.

One by one, Johnson pulled up from some of the deepest spots on the floor and drained three-pointer after three-pointer to narrow the lead and eventually tie the game to send it to overtime. He scored 14 of the team’s 16 points in the final three and a half minutes.

“I live for those moments, man, since high school, and today my team just trusted me,” Johnson said. “I knew that we needed to hit big shots in those late moments, and I had the ball, and I had to come through. Like I said, man, God is good. I put a lot of work in, and the work shows.”

Once the game got to overtime, Johnson didn’t light it up nearly as much as he had in the second half. However, he went 3-of-4 at the free-throw line to give the Gamecocks the lead for good. There was also an assist he had that helped add to the lead in the closing moments.

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After making his first free throw to make it a one-point advantage, Johnson drove inside and dished out a pass to Myles Stute, who proceeded to knock down the corner three. This gave South Carolina a four-point lead with 32 seconds to go.

“(Stute) missed a lot of missed shots late in the game, and I found before coming through, I told him, he’s the best shooter in the country,” Johnson said. “I needed him to step up, and he did. So shout out to him. Shout out to everybody, man. We all stepped up tonight. We came out victorious.”

Johnson went 9-for-19 from the field and 7-for-14 from three-point range. He did commit five turnovers on the night, but that can all be forgiven by the memorable performance he had.

“It don’t matter how much time is left. It doesn’t matter where we at in the game. This is basketball. I believe this is the greatest sport in history,” he said. “I don’t know if this could happen in football. It’s a game of runs, man, and we just stuck with it. We came together as a team.”

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