MBB: Gamecocks sweep Bulldogs

South Carolina beat Georgia 66-57, dealing a major blow to Georgia's NCAA Tournament hopes.

The game was in many ways a typical South Carolina-Georgia rock fight. Both teams shot under 40 percent from the field and endured long scoreless stretches. But South Carolina did two things atypical for the series. It protected the ball, committing only five turnovers, and made threes, hitting 13 of 30.

The Gamecocks expected going into the game that the Bulldogs would pack the paint defensively to stop Chris Silva. And once the game started, that is exactly what happened.

"We needed to have some courage in our guards to jump up and make threes, have Felipe (Haase) jump up and make threes," Frank Martin said.

"Coach Frank told us we were going to have to make shots in this game and we did," said Haase, who scored an SEC career-high 12 points.

South Carolina finished the first half on a 13-3 run, and Haase, who scored 11 points total in his last three games, was the catalyst. He made a jumper and a floater in the lane, and then in the final minute, buried a three from the corner. After the three, Georgia's Yante Maten rushed up a shot with 11 seconds left in the half, leaving just enough time for Haase to grab the rebound and get the ball ahead to Hassani Gravett, who buried a three at the buzzer.

"They were very aggressive in the first half and really put us on our heels," Mark Fox said. "We just dug ourselves too big of a hole."

Georgia opened the second half on an 11-2 run to cut the deficit to six. Then Wesley Myers hit a three to stop the bleeding. That was the story of the second half. Georgia cut the deficit to five or six points four times, and each time South Carolina answered.

The second time, Georgia pulled within 47-42 with 12:46 to play. Silva grabbed an offensive rebound and drew a foul, making both free throws. After a Georgia turnover, Silva made a basket and drew a foul for a three-point play.

"When we have adversity during the game, we've got to go to our big fellow, Chris," Myers said. "We slow the game down, let's get away from the guards, get away from the jump shots, let's get to the basket and get to the free throw line. He's done a great job finishing."

The next two times the Bulldogs let the same thing bite them. They sagged in the paint to stop Silva, and their guards refused to fight through screens. Myers hit a three to go back up nine with 6:37 left, and then Gravett did the same with 1:25 left to clinch the win.

"We knew they were going to sag in the paint, so we all got extra shots up the last two days and really focused on that," said Myers, who scored 15 points on 5-7 shooting from three.

"It says a lot that regardless of what happened earlier in the month of February that when the games got hard, we didn't give in," Martin said. "Every time they cut it to six, we really locked in defensively. We took good shots and we didn't turn it over, and that allowed our defense to set."

Four of South Carolina's last five baskets were threes, with only a tough basket from Silva coming inside the arc. The 31 attempts were the second most this season, and the 13 makes were a season-high for South Carolina.

"Their team made threes a little bit out of character that they've shown this year," Fox said. "They made thirteen threes on the night and we had 17 turnovers. That really is the difference in the game."

South Carolina attempted 13 more shots than Georgia, and two more free throws. The turnover differential helped South Carolina attempt more shots, and helped negate South Carolina's 31 percent shooting percentage.

"When we don't turn the ball over we get an opportunity to shoot more shots," Myers said. "We give Chris, Mike, Felipe a chance to give us more opportunities (with offensive rebounds)"

Silva finished with 15 points and six rebounds, but struggled with foul trouble in the second half. Frank Booker scored 14 points, all in the first half. Georgia's Yante Maten, one of the SEC's top players, had a quiet game, scoring 13 points and grabbing ten rebounds.

Notes:

Freshman guard David Beatty did not play. ... Maik Kotsar had only two points on 110 shooting, but he had a season-high nine rebounds and several hustle plays down the stretch. "He pretty much saved the game for us with some of those offensive rebounds down the stretch," Martin said. ... South Carolina shot 11-14 from the free throw line, with Silva going 9-10. ... Evan Hinson had one rebound and three fouls in four minutes. ... Attendance was 11,529. ... South Carolina's next game is Saturday at Mississippi State.