MBB: Sweetness

South Carolina routed Baylor 70-50 to advance to the Elite Eight Friday night at Madison Square Garden in NYC. Sindarius Thornwell finished with 24 points, six rebounds, two assists, two blocks, and two steals.

In the first two rounds, South Carolina fell behind in the first half and needed huge second half runs to win the game. Friday night in Madison Square Garden, South Carolina eliminated all the drama and took over midway through the first half and cruised to a dominant victory.

The Gamecocks held the Bears scoreless for seven minutes and 44 seconds in the opening half. Not without a field goal - without a single point. From the 9:58 mark to the 2:14 mark, the Bears had 15 points.

"It's the best defensive team I've coached in college basketball," USC head coach Frank Martin said. "No doubt."

On the other end, South Carolina scored 18 straight points. It turned a 15-13 deficit into a 31-15 lead, and turned a close game into a rout. Before the run, South Carolina was playing into the same old bad habits, playing passively on offense and settling for threes. During the run, South Carolina pushed the ball after every change of possession, moved the ball aggressively, and got inside.

A fadeaway jumper by PJ Dozier tied the game, and then a three by Duane Notice put South Carolina ahead for good. Thornwell scored in transition, Chris Silva made a pair of free throws, Dozier made a free throw, and then Rakym Felder made a floater as the shot clock expired. Thornwell and Silva added baskets, and then Thornwell made a pair of free throws to cap the run.

South Carolina led 37-22 at halftime, and quickly stretched the lead to 20 on a basket by Dozier and three by Thornwell to start the second half. But South Carolina got very passive on offense, and Baylor went on a 10-0 run with 11 minutes left that cut the lead to 11 and put a scare into South Carolina fans. Then Thornwell, who suffered a cut over his eye on the second possession of the game, calmly drained a three to kill the momentum. Moments later, off an offensive rebound by Maik Kotsar, Notice buried another three and South Carolina was back up 17. Thornwell added another three with 5:33 left that put South Carolina up 20 and led both teams to concede the outcome.

"They went on that run and the TV timeout happened and that's when we settled down," Thornwell said. "I hit a three and Duane hit a three. And that's when the lead got extended and that's when we knew that we took that run and just we just had to finish the game then."

Thornwell was once again the best player on the court, finishing with his typically stuffed box score of 24 points, six rebounds, two assists, two steals, and two blocks. But for the second round in a row he did not have to take over the game because his teammates came to play. Dozier and Silva each scored 12 points despite playing under 30 minutes. Dozier added six rebounds, three assists, and two steals, while Silva added a team-high seven rebounds and two blocks. Notice chipped in an efficient 11 points, and Felder continued to bring energy off the bench, scoring nine points.

The Gamecocks led for more than 36 minutes. The Bears led for just 1:49, by score of 13-11 and 15-13. The Bears tied their season low with 22 points in the first half, and started the game shooting 1-10. Their only first half success came on a 9-0 run that immediately preceded the scoreless stretch. The Gamecocks led by as much as 22 in the second half as the eased up offensively, but they still held the Bears to just 28 points in the half and a season-low for points in a game.

"I felt like we were in their heads the whole game," Thornwell said.

South Carolina shot 46 percent for the game and held Baylor to 30 percent shooting. South Carolina went 8-20 from three and 16-23 from the free throw line. South Carolina outrebounded Baylor 40-37.

Both teams committed 16 turnovers. The key was points off turnovers. Baylor scored eight points off South Carolina's first four turnovers, all in the first 10 minutes of the game, when Baylor had a 15-13 lead. Over the final 30 minutes of the game, Baylor scored just five points off 12 South Carolina turnovers (although South Carolina intentionally ran out the shot clocks several times at the end of the game). South Carolina was scoreless off Baylor's first five turnovers, but scored 11 points off the final 11 turnovers.

Johnathan Motley led Baylor with 18 points and nine rebounds. He was the only Baylor player to score in double figures. Motley was effective, but South Carolina made him work for everything.

"We stayed aggressive and made his catches hard," Thornwell said. "We knew that he likes to score in the paint and made his catches be extended outside, that way he has to take more than one dribble to score; he can't just turn and shoot over the top of you."

South Carolina advances to play the winner of the Florida-Wisconsin game on Sunday.