An uneventful night is the best kind of night this early in non-conference play.
South Carolina men’s basketball overwhelmed Towson 80-54 at Colonial Life Arena, completing its first homestand of the season with back-to-back wins before hitting the road at No. 16 Indiana on Saturday.
"I thought we had a tremendous team effort against a team I think is going to win a lot of games," Lamont Paris said. "I felt really good about the effort that we had against that team. Of course we played well, a couple of guys in particular."
Most opponents on South Carolina’s (2-1) schedule will struggle to contain superstar sophomore Collin Murray-Boyles, but Towson’s (1-2) roster without a player over 6-foot-9 was an extreme example. Murray-Boyles scored 27 points and grabbed nine rebounds, at one point completely taking over the game with a stretch of nine points in less than seven minutes to open the second half.
His play is almost a given, especially against mid-major opponents. The better development for South Carolina was his post mate, Nick Pringle.
The Alabama transfer brought in to help South Carolina run its offense through its post players has struggled on the young season, scoring just 11 total points on 13 shot attempts against North Florida and South Carolina State.
He more than doubled his season scoring total Tuesday, and did so efficiently. Pringle scored 15 points on 6-of-8 shooting, and a lot of it was exactly what Paris had in mind when he signed the 6-foot-10 senior. A mix of back-to-basket work, strong post moves and running the floor in transition a little bit.
"It's not been something that he's been asked to do a ton," Paris said. "It takes some time to get used to it. There's going to be some good days and bad days, but I do have faith in his ability to create some havoc around the basket."
There was really no danger of an upset at any point, as the Gamecocks darted out to a 12-3 lead and maintained it all night, although there were a few blinking warning lights for future, tougher opponents. The defense failed to close out a few times, and Towson’s abysmal 5-of-25 shooting game from 3-point range bailed out the Gamecocks.
The offense had 16 turnovers, and rebounding was a chore all night even with the healthy size advantage. Towson scooped up 15 offensive rebounds, including three on one possession which led to its first made field goal of the game at the fourth time of asking.
But when three players score in double-figures — Jacobi Wright also had 16 along with the two post players — you end up with assists on 17 out of 26 made field goals and the offense hums at over 1.1 points per possession, there is not too much to gripe about.
An efficient, ball-moving offense guided by the front court is, in essence, exactly what Paris and his staff had in mind when it pieced together this roster.
"We spent a little bit of time this week on some of the ball-movement stuff," Paris said. "That really worked to make us move the ball, and to get some actions to where we were forced also to move. That's another core belief of mine in terms of offense, is that I think movement is good. I think it makes defenses work. I liked how we moved the ball."
Not a perfect showing, but more than enough to build on for a mid-November non-conference game.
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