South Carolina coach Lamont Paris was very happy with his team’s selflessness in its season-opening win against visiting North Carolina A&T.
He’ll be looking for more of the same when the Gamecocks (1-0) face Southern Miss (1-1) on Sunday in Columbia, S.C.
All 12 Gamecocks that played in the opener had at least one assist and the team finished with 23 assists on 31 field goals in a 91-72 victory Tuesday night.
“I give the guys a lot of credit for that,” Paris said, “because honestly you can encourage sharing the ball, you can practice sharing the ball. Then when the game happens, I’m standing on the sidelines, and they’re out there deciding whether they’re going to share the ball or not share the ball, and they shared the ball. They deserve a ton of credit for that.”
The unselfishness led to five double-figure scorers, and nine players made at least one of the team’s 14 3-pointers.
Meechie Johnson led the way with 14 points, Nordin Kapic scored 13, Kobe Knox had 12, while Elijah Strong and Eli Ellis had 11 each. Four of the five made at least half of their field-goal attempts.
“We’re a bunch of smart players,” Kapic said. “Moving the ball around, unselfish team, it’s all about what we want to do, and that’s going to make us win games – just sharing the ball and being unselfish.”
Southern Miss (1-1) also had a team effort when 13 Golden Eagles scored in a 93-57 victory against NAIA Tougaloo on Thursday night in Hattiesburg, Miss.
“I think we have a lot of quality players,” coach Jay Ladner said. “I think we’re bigger and stronger than last year, a little more athletic and score a little better across the board. We have a great teachable, coachable attitude every day.”
Southern Miss, which began the season with an 85-79 loss at Buffalo in the MAC-SBC Challenge, had four double-figure scorers against Tougaloo. Isaac Taveras, who scored 28 points against Buffalo, had 16 points and 10 rebounds, Felipe Patino scored 18 on six 3-pointers, Israel Hart had 11 and Dalyn Brandon added 10.
Brandon made all four of his shots, including two 3-pointers, in 10 minutes in his first college action in 617 days due to injury.
–Field Level Media
