Defense staple of another Gamecock victory

Steve Hawkins knew what to expect. He knew what Frank Martin was going to throw at his Western Michigan team. He knew that his team was going to have their hands full trying to find any offensive rhythm Monday night at Colonial Life Arena.

But he couldn’t do anything about it as the Gamecocks stifled the Broncos in the second half en route to a 78-60 win despite Martin saying he didn’t prepare his team offensively to play.

“I wasn’t happy with myself with the job I thought I did to prepare us to play offense today, but I went home yesterday and I said, ‘We’re going to guard these guys,”’ Martin said. “We were on it defensively. We were on it, we were on point and we played that way.”

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It was a patented performance fans have come to expect at South Carolina under Martin. The Gamecocks held Western Michigan to 36.2 percent shooting, 23.8 percent from beyond the arc.

The Broncos shot around 35 percent from the field in the second half and turned the ball over 11 times.

Time after time the defense would come up with a big play, too, with Chris Silva swatting a ball into the floor, so hard it seemed like the hardwood rattled, to spark a 12-0 run.

After that, the Broncos found it hard to do anything on the offensive end of the floor.

“I thought defensively we controlled the game,” Martin said. “Our defense is what allowed us to never allow them to go on those runs.”

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Part of the reason it was like pulling teeth to score for Western Michigan was because of smothering on-ball defense from guards like Hassani Gravett and Justin Minaya.

Martin said Minaya did a great job neutralizing Thomas Wilder, who finished with a game-high 21 points. He had just 10 points once the freshman switched over to him.

Gravett, who sat the last 12 minutes of the first half due to foul trouble, was able to be inserted back into the lineup in the second half with fresh legs and a leg up on the competition.

He saw what plays the Broncos were running and knew what to expect a lot of the second half.

“They were just kind of repeating the same plays over and over again,” Gravett said. “When I got back in the game I was able to figure out which play they were running and talk to my teammates and call out what they were about to do.”

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Through two games this season the Gamecocks are giving up on average 56 points per game, and opponents are shooting 35.5 percent from the field on them and just 27.5 percent from three.

It’s a little interesting to see defensive cohesion like this so early, but it’s not surprising given the fact that it’s a team coached by Martin, who’s made his name off defense his whole career.

And it’s served him well not only this season so far but his entire time at South Carolina.

“When he’s on the other side of the floor you know how that team’s going to play,” said Hawkins, who’s in his 15th season coaching Western Michigan. “That’s going to win them a lot of ball games. It has.”