Frank Martin hinted in his weekly press conference the Gamecocks were tweaking a few things defensively for their next game.

He didn’t want to say what those were, keeping state secrets close to the vest, but the minor changes were designed to try and put a governor on likely NBA lottery pick Anthony Edwards.

Whatever he did worked.

“I thought the little wrinkles we tried to implement, I thought we were real good with them. I thought our attention to detail was real good. They got us because they’re constantly cutting from all five spots,” Martin said. “They got us some times on those cuts. But when you’re zoned in, you’re trying to keep Wheeler out of the paint and have a special talent like Anthony Edwards, it puts a lot of stress on your help defense to really disciplined. I thought we were really good in that department. I thought the attention to detail was really good.”

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The changes weren’t wholesale—the Gamecocks still played man defense with their typical emphasis on helping and clogging passing lanes—but threw everything and the kitchen sink at Edwards.

Jermaine Couisnard handled the bulk of the defensive duty on the 225-pound freshman as the only Gamecock starting guard coming close to him in weight—Couisnard’s listed at 211 pounds—but they rotated defensive assignments every now and again.

Couisnard drew Edwards the majority of the night but South Carolina used Trae Hannibal, Keyshawn Bryant, TJ Moss, AJ Lawson and even Maik Kotsar throughout the night to try and limit what Edwards could do.

Edwards still got off 16 points, five fewer than the 21.3 he averaged in the 10 SEC games prior, but he did it on just 4-of-13 shooting.

“It was just sticking to the game plan, knowing where he was at all times. If he’s in the corner and up top, talking and telling whoever’s on him he has help so everyone’s comfortable. That’s what we did. We communicated the whole time.”

He’d miss all seven of his three point attempts as well with half his points coming at the line.

There were times he looked visibly frustrated and even Couisnard said after the game he saw Edwards was upset he “wasn’t getting the ball and the shots he wanted.”

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“When one person drives, everyone rotates and they take charges. No one was hitting threes today, myself included,” Edwards said. “They were sitting in the paint, like all of them; everybody.”

But it wasn’t just Edwards who was having a rough night; the entire Georgia team struggled mightily, especially in the first half.

The Bulldogs had just five points through the game’s first 14:20, hitting just one field goal over that stretch.

They’d finish with 59 points on 34.6 percent shooting.

It’s a testament to how good the Gamecocks (15-9, 7-4 SEC) are playing defensively, even without their best defender in Justin Minaya. Over their last two games, South Carolina has put up back-to-back games with defensive efficiencies of 80, which they’ve only done four times in SEC play.

“I feel like everyone’s buying in. We need all 14 guys,” Couisnard said. “We need everybody to buy in and give us something on the defensive end.”