South Carolina delivered its most complete outing of the young season on Tuesday night, even with the level of competition still ramping up. Coming off last year’s 26-point rout of Radford inside Colonial Life Arena, the Gamecocks once again handled business with authority, overpowering the Highlanders 87-58 to stay unbeaten.
Head coach Lamont Paris praised the collective effort on display, saying, “I thought it was a good team effort. Really good team effort. Good team win. I thought as we built the lead, as it got in the three, four, five-minute mark of the game, we did a much better job. I mean, you’re always looking for growth in your group, and there’s an example of growth.”
Gamecocks Pull Away After Slow Start
South Carolina (4-0) found itself in a relatively tight contest midway through the first half, leading by just two. That quickly changed. The Gamecocks surged with a 22–9 run over the final 10 minutes, then closed the half with an 8–0 burst to take a 15-point advantage into the break.
The momentum carried into the second half as USC opened with a 16–4 run, ballooning the lead into full blowout territory.
Two-Point Dominance Carries the Offense
For the second straight matchup, South Carolina didn’t need to overwhelm from deep. The Gamecocks hit just 7-of-25 from three but were unstoppable inside, controlling the paint and generating high-efficiency looks all night.
Mike Sharavjamts, who posted the first double-double of his career with 12 points and a team-high 10 rebounds, credited the team’s recent practice focus.
“We’ve been practicing a lot, like two-foot jump stops, and I feel like that helps a lot for us. More like comfortable,” Sharavjamts said. He went 4-of-5 from the field and knocked down two threes.
The Gamecocks finished with a blistering 57.6 percent shooting mark, including an astounding 27-of-34 inside the arc (79.4 percent). Their 48 paint points dwarfed Radford’s 16.
Paris highlighted the quality of those interior looks:
“It was good to get those points generated and be able to get some stuff from around the basket. But, man, some of those first threes that we had, holy smokes. We had some nice, clean looks early, but sometimes it’s going to be like that. But it’s nice that you can still have that type of efficiency from two-point land when you’re struggling by your standard from the three-point line.”
Defense Sets the Tone
South Carolina’s defense was relentless, holding Radford to a season-low 30.9 percent shooting. The Gamecocks dominated the glass 40–16—grabbing 33 defensive rebounds alone—and forced 14 turnovers that turned into 20 points.
One of the brightest individual bounce-back performances came from Elijah Strong. After struggling in the previous outing, the junior forward erupted for a team-high 15 points, making his first five shots and finishing 7-of-10. He added three rebounds, two assists, and a block in 18 minutes off the bench.
Strong said his defensive intensity sparked everything else in his game.
“If you play hard on defense and you play physical and you play really good team basketball, you know, everything else is going to fall in hand,” he said. “Coach Paris, he likes to talk about the basketball gods a lot. So you know, they were on our side tonight because of our physicality on the defensive end.”
Eli Ellis added 14 points while contributing three rebounds and three assists. Kobe Knox rounded out the double-figure scorers with 10 points, plus five assists and two boards.
Strong said the team’s balance and unselfishness are among its biggest strengths.
“Everybody wants to play for a team like this because it could be anybody’s given night at any time,” Strong said. “We emphasize that in practice that you don’t have to do it by yourself. And everybody knows that. Nobody is selfish on this team, which is beautiful in today’s college basketball. We just trust each other.”
Next Up: Greenbrier Tip-Off
South Carolina now heads to West Virginia for the second annual Greenbrier Tip-Off at The Greenbrier Resort. The Gamecocks face Butler on Friday at 2 p.m., followed by Northwestern on Sunday at 5 p.m. Both contests will air on CBS Sports Network.
