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Aftermath: Duane serves Notice his shooting woes may be over

Freshman G Rakym Felder hit a trio of 3-pointers in Saturday's win over Texas A&M
Freshman G Rakym Felder hit a trio of 3-pointers in Saturday's win over Texas A&M (Chris Gillespie, Gamecock Central)

Frank Martin defiantly told the world Thursday night on his weekly call-in show that Duane Notice was such a ball hawk defensively that his recent shooting woes did not justify pulling him from the starting lineup.

Saturday, his patience in the senior guard from Toronto paid dividends as Notice drained 4-of-9 3-point attempts and scored 19 points (most since scoring 27 vs. FIU in early December) in South Carolina’s satisfying 79-68 victory over Texas A&M at Colonial Life Arena.

Notice had been 1-of-15 shooting in USC’s last two games, including 1-of-7 at Georgia on Wednesday night, and 7-of-34 in the last four games. The win in Athens game marked the fourth time in six games Notice had one or fewer field goals while attempting seven or more shots.

In short, nothing was going in for one of USC’s senior leaders.

But Martin and Notice’s teammates never lost faith in him. Instead they showed him a lot of love as his struggles shooting the basketball continued.

Notice’s 19 points Saturday was just two points less than the amount of points he had scored in the previous four games combined.

Now Martin and the Gamecocks hope he’s able to sustain Saturday’s deadeye shooting display.

“Let’s be happy I’m coaching him and not you guys (the media)”, Martin said Saturday after the Gamecocks’ hard-fought victory over turnover-plagued Texas A&M. “When you live with somebody, you know what they’re about. Was I worried for him? Of course I was because he cares so much. I didn’t have a magic formula. I just told him how much I believed him.”

A defining moment in Friday’s practice convinced Martin that Notice would be A-OK offensively.

“He made the first three he shot in practice and P.J. (Dozier) went nuts on him in a positive way for making the shot,” Martin said. “They started looking for him and looking for him. He started making them. Even when he missed, Sindarius (Thornwell) would tell him, ‘You’d better shoot it again because I’m getting the rebound. Those guys are tight.”

A pair of 3-pointers by Notice in the first 5:40 of the second half helped the Gamecocks erase a one-point halftime deficit and build a 51-43 lead over the Aggies. Later, his conventional three-point play with 5:57 left was part of a game-changing 14-2 run by the Gamecocks that gave USC a 72-61 lead with 3:21 left.

“It was an unbelievable feeling,” Notice said of watching his shots finally go into the basket. “I have the same preparation before every game. So, as I have said before, I had the faith in my ability to shoot the basketball. Playing with guys like Rah Felder, P.J. Dozier and Sindarius and playing under coaches who were continually telling me to shoot the ball, did nothing but help me.”

NOTES:

-- Texas A&M’s 25 turnovers were a season-high by a Gamecock opponent. USC scored 30 points off those miscues. They had 11 steals. The Gamecocks committed just six turnovers with nobody having more than one turnover in the final boxscore. “Our initial hits defensively were pretty good,” Martin said. “When we sped them up and rotated the right way, they made mistakes. We were able to convert some of those turnovers into open court opportunities.”

-- D.J. Hogg proved why he was Texas A&M’s top outside shooting threat, connecting on 7-of-9 three-point attempts and finishing with 25 points. However, he received little support from his teammates. Tyler Davis was averaging over 14 points coming into the game, but he had just 10 points on 4-8 shooting. Despite his impressive shooting display, Hogg committed six turnovers. “Our rotations were bad today,” Martin said. “Some of our young guys rotated off the wrong people. We were forced to rotate off Hogg. When you’re late on a 6-8 guy that’s a real good player and has it going on, you’re in trouble.”

-- Martin expressed his displeasure at USC’s defensive rebounding. The Gamecocks had 13 defensive rebounds to Texas A&M’s 12 offensive rebounds. Martin blamed USC’s lack of defensive rebounding on his players’ tendency of watching the ball in flight instead of focusing on blocking out their man. “Our defensive rebounding is no good,” Martin said. “That must get fixed. It’s my job to fix it and the players’ job to get ownership of that. Defensive rebounding is a problem right now. It has to be fixed now. But I’s rather be 2-0 and trying to fix a problem rather than being 0-2 and trying to convince them the problem is something else.”

-- Freshman Rakym Felder matched Notice for the team high in scoring with 19 points. Felder was 3-of-3 from long range, 6-of-8 overall, and added four rebounds, two assists and two steals in 16 minutes. “He has finally been at practice and getting himself into shape,” Martin said. “Back in November, it was like an AAU game to him. He wanted the ball in his hands and he didn’t want to guard the way we were asking him to guard. He had just never practiced that way. Now he is starting to understand what we do.” Felder has ultra-confidence in his shooting ability, Martin said.

-- USC is 9-1 at home this season and are averaging almost 76 points per game at Colonial Life Arena.

NEXT FIVE GAMES

Jan. 11 at Tennessee, 6:30 p.m. (SEC Network)*

Jan. 14 OLE MISS, 6:30 p.m. (ESPNU)*

Jan. 18 FLORIDA, 6:30 p.m. (SEC Network)*

Jan. 21 at Kentucky, TBA (ESPN or ESPN2)*

Jan. 24 AUBURN, 6:30 p.m. (SEC Network)*

(All Times Eastern)

* SEC Game

SEC SCHEDULE (Sat., Jan. 7)

Georgia 71, Missouri 66

South Carolina 79, Texas A&M 68

Mississippi State 95, LSU 78

Florida 83, Tennessee 70

Ole Miss 88, Auburn 85

Alabama 59, Vanderbilt 56

Arkansas at Kentucky, 8:30 p.m. (SEC Network)

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