South Carolina's magical season ends as Oregon offense shines
After surpassing all exceptions throughout this entire season, time has run out on South Carolina.
The six-seeded Gamecocks fell to 11-seeded Oregon, 87-73, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday in Pittsburgh. With the loss, their season has officially come to an end.
“Just a great group of guys, special group,” Meechie Johnson said. “Went into a lot of places, a lot of arenas, a lot of people throughout and did some good things this year. Obviously came up short, but just can’t take away what we did, the group of guys that was on this team, the fun we had.”
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How it happened
South Carolina (26-8, 13-5 SEC) did a good job of matching Oregon’s physicality, especially in the paint. The Ducks were up to as many as five turnovers in the early minutes. But offensively, the Gamecocks had a tough time getting their shots to fall.
With a stalemate 14-14 tie, South Carolina went on a 6-0 run to go up by six midway through the first half. Jacobi Wright and Johnson were both responsible as they each knocked down a three-pointer during this quick stretch.
However, the Ducks came right back to reclaim the lead as former Gamecock Jermaine Couisnard started to heat up. By halftime, he was up to 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting.
“Yeah, he’s a good player, made some tough shots, especially over good defense, contested defense,” Johnson said. “Like I said, he made some good shots. He’s a good player. You try to contain him as much as we could. He’s a strong driver, but he shot the ball well today. Like I said, he’s a good player.”
Things continued to go well for Oregon as the lead moved up to double digits with just under two minutes to play. Over the final few minutes, the Ducks went on a key 18-2 run to go up.
Meanwhile, the Gamecocks were back to having issues connecting on their shots. At one point, they hadn’t made a field goal for over seven minutes. But they were fortunate to trim the deficit with some free throws.
With three seconds to go, Oregon’s Jackson Shelstad hit a step back jumper to give the Ducks an eight-point lead.
Just when it seemed that would do it for the first half, Ta’Lon Cooper heaved up a prayer of a shot well from well behind half court. As the clock hit zero, his three-point try hit off the glass and went in, making it a five-point game at halftime.
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Rather than show emotion and go crazy, Cooper, as usual, kept it cool and jogged off into the locker room with the rest of his team. But it was just what his team needed after struggling so much from the field.
Despite that big shot, Oregon seemed unaffected by it. Coming out of the break, the Ducks wasted no time building their lead back up to double digits.
Midway through the period, the Gamecocks got the lead down to 11 as BJ Mack hit a three, his first points since the opening minutes. But Couisnard, who continued to stay hot, drained a three of his own on the next possession.
After falling behind again, South Carolina made it a 10-point game with under seven minutes to play. But just like before, Couisnard went down the other end of the floor on the next play and hit a three.
It was a huge day for the former Gamecock guard. Couisnard finished with 40 points on 14-of-22 shooting in his first matchup against his old team.
“I wish we had found a way to slow him down better. But he went 5 for 9 from three, once in transition as he’s dribbling up right in front of us, and 7-for-7 from the free throw line. And he was aggressive, going to the basket,” head coach Lamont Paris said. “And I think a few of those, I mean he hit a floater against the zone that we fouled him on. He makes tough shots. He doesn’t average 40, but he makes tough shots. And I think it was set off by the fact that he went five for nine from the three-point line. I thought that really ends up making that scoring effort. It’s hard to get there on twos, but when you go 7-for-7 from the free throw line and 5-for-9 from the three-point line, then something like that comes into it.”
Two observations
Came out flat in second half—It’s crazy to think how quickly the momentum swung after the Cooper buzzer-beater. South Carolina couldn’t build off that play in the second half as Oregon played with its hair on fire. And it wasn’t so much of the offense that was the issue. The defense just didn’t have many answers to stop the Ducks.
Couldn’t stop Dante—Perhaps the biggest key for this game was South Carolina needing to stop N’Faly Dante. But as it turned out, the 6-foot-11 center proved to be too much to handle throughout the game. He finished with 23 points on 7-of-9 shooting.
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Key stat
59.6 percent—Oregon didn’t seem to cool off one bit after its big run in the Pac-12 Tournament. The Ducks shot 59.6 percent from the field in Thursday’s win. They managed to do it on 28-of-47 shooting and 43.8 percent from deep.
Turning point
South Carolina managed to get the lead down to 10 with under seven minutes to play. But that momentum was squashed not long after as Couisnard drilled a three-pointer on the other end of the floor on the next play.
Up next
South Carolina will head into the offseason with a lot of momentum after a fantastic year. The Gamecocks will have to try to replace players like Cooper, Mack and Stephen Clark, who are now all out of eligibility. But it’s safe to say the future looks bright under Paris.
“I love it at South Carolina. I love our guys. I love the people I’m around, I love the other coaches. I love who I work with, and there was a lot of speculation about a lot of other things that were out there,” Paris said. “And so it’s no accident that I ended up right back where I am, and hopefully it displays the level of belief that I have in not only what we’re doing as a staff, but just in who we’re around every day and what I believe that looks like moving forward.”
