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South Carolina seeks its first road win of the season as the Gamecocks travel to Vanderbilt on Saturday in Nashville, Tenn.
Both teams have found it tough to establish momentum due to seasons that have been paused at various points because of COVID-19. South Carolina (4-5, 2-3 SEC) and Vanderbilt (4-8, 0-6 SEC) have played the fewest games of any SEC school both inside and outside the league.
South Carolina’s 83-59 home defeat of Georgia on Wednesday should provide some encouragement.
Georgia held the Gamecocks’ leading scorer, AJ Lawson (16.8 ppg), in check (12 points on 4-of-12 shooting). However, Keyshawn Bryant led the way with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Jermaine Couisnard added 18 points.
But the key on Wednesday was South Carolina’s hard-nosed defense, something that had slipped recently. South Carolina held Georgia to a season low in points after allowing 109 to Auburn on Saturday.
“It was fun to watch not just because of the score but just the unity and the connectedness that we played with defensively,” South Carolina coach Frank Martin said after the Georgia game. “And I thought as the game progressed that gave us the same kind of trust offensively.”
As for Vanderbilt, the Commodores trailed by 22 with 9:52 left at Florida on Wednesday before a late run that ended a 78-71 loss. Scotty Pippen Jr. scored a career-high 32 points, and Dylan Disu added 18 points and nine rebounds.
Finding a third scorer has been a persistent problem for Vanderbilt. Pippen averages 21.6 points, Disu adds 13.7, and then there’s a large drop to Jordan Wright (7.9), who has scored in double figures just once in SEC play.
“We’ve got to find another consistent, third (scoring) option,” Vanderbilt coach Jerry Stackhouse said. “Trey (Thomas) and Myles (Stute) – they’ve struggled a little bit of late – but hopefully we can get those guys into a rhythm. We need those guys to make 3s.”
Thomas and Stute, both freshmen, combined for two points in 27 minutes at Florida.
Defense is the other issue.
The Commodores allow a league-worst 119.1 points per 100 possessions in league play, according to KenPom.com. Florida shot 58.1 percent from inside the arc and 43.5 percent from 3-point range on Wednesday.
Wednesday’s loss kept Vanderbilt in a familiar rut. Counting tournament play, Vanderbilt is 3-41 against the SEC the past three seasons, though 3-22 under Stackhouse.
One of Vandy’s three wins was an 83-74 defeat of visiting South Carolina in the teams’ last meeting on March 7, 2020. The Gamecocks were 10-7 in the league coming in and had hopes of earning a trip to the NCAA tournament, but they couldn’t stop Pippen, who had a game-high 21 points and was 15-of-16 from the foul line.
–Field Level Media
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