South Carolina puts together complete performance in win over Radford

It’s still early in the season to the point where the competition hasn’t really ramped up yet. But Tuesday may have been South Carolina’s most complete performance so far.

After a 26-point blowout win over Radford at Colonial Life Arena last year, the Gamecocks rolled to another dominant victory over the Highlanders, winning 87-58 to remain unbeaten.

“I thought it was a good team effort. Really good team effort. Good team win,” head coach Lamont Paris said. “I thought as we built the lead, as it got in the three, four, five-minute mark of the game, we did a much better job. I mean, you’re always looking for growth in your group, and there’s an example of growth.”

Things were semi-tight early on with South Carolina (4-0) up by two points midway through the first half, but its play eventually picked up with a 22-9 run over the last 10 minutes.

It went into the break on an 8-0 run to go up by 15 and controlled the game from that point on. That lead only expanded further into blowout territory when it went on a 16-4 run through the first five minutes of the second half.

Your GamecockCentral membership starts at just $1 for the first week – and we’ll throw in a complimentary year of access to The Athletic.

For the second straight game, the Gamecocks weren’t reliant on three-pointers, even more so this time compared to last Wednesday’s win over Presbyterian. They went 7-for-25, yet still were dominant in other aspects, to where they never really needed to count on their outside shooting.

“We’ve been practicing a lot, like two-foot jump stops, and I feel like that helps a lot for us. More like comfortable,” said Mike Sharavjamts, who recorded his first career double-double with 12 points and a team-high 10 rebounds. He shot 4-of-5 from the field and knocked down two threes.

South Carolina shot very well from the floor at a 57.6 percent clip. A lot of that had to do with how much of a presence it had in the paint with 48 points compared to Radford’s 16. It finished 27-of-34 on shots inside the arc, good for 79.4 percent on the night.

Paris was pleased with how those inside points came, specifically with good post-ups and cuts towards the basket.

“It was good to get those points generated and be able to get some stuff from around the basket,” Paris said. “But, man, some of those first threes that we had, holy smokes. We had some nice, clean looks early, but sometimes it’s going to be like that. But it’s nice that you can still have that type of efficiency from two-point land when you’re struggling by your standard from the three-point line.”

Defensively, the Gamecocks were tenacious all game long, holding the Highlanders to a season-low 30.9 percent shooting from the floor. They grabbed 40 rebounds, 33 of which were on the defensive end, compared to Radford, which only had 16. They also forced 14 turnovers and scored 20 points off them.

After some rough moments last time out, especially on defense, Elijah Strong had a much better showing on Tuesday. The junior forward led the team with 15 points as he made his first five shots and finished 7-of-10. He also had three rebounds and two assists to go along with a block in 18 minutes off the bench.

Defense was a main point of emphasis for Strong to have the game he had, which only helped him get going.

“If you play hard on defense and you play physical and you play really good team basketball, you know, everything else is going to fall in hand,” Strong said. “Coach Paris, he likes to talk about the basketball gods a lot. So you know, they were on our side tonight because of our physicality on the defensive end.”

Eli Ellis was right behind Strong with 14 points on 5-of-8 shooting and had an equal number of rebounds and assists with three apiece. Kobe Knox was the fourth and final scorer to finish in double figures with 10 points on 2-of-5 shooting. He had five assists and two rebounds.

“Everybody wants to play for a team like this because it could be anybody’s given night at any time,” Strong said. “We emphasize that in practice that you don’t have to do it by yourself. And everybody knows that. Nobody is selfish on this team, which is beautiful in today’s college basketball. We just trust each other.”

Up next: South Carolina will head to West Virginia this weekend to play two games in the second annual Greenbrier Tip-Off at The Greenbrier Resort. The Gamecocks will face Butler on Friday at 2 p.m. and Northwestern on Sunday at 5 p.m. Both games will be broadcast on CBS Sports Network.

The Insiders Forum: Discuss South Carolina basketball!