South Carolina Men’s Basketball Overwhelms Victoria With Balanced Second-Half Surge in Bahamas Opener
South Carolina men’s basketball opened its trip to the Baha Mar Hoops Summer League with a decisive 94-81 win over Victoria (Canada) on August 8 in Nassau, Bahamas — a result built almost entirely on a dominant second-half turnaround.
A game that swung after halftime
The opening period was tightly contested, but everything changed once the Gamecocks came out of the locker room. South Carolina outscored Victoria 52-41 over the final 20 minutes, immediately going on a 27-14 run through the first eight minutes of the second half that forced a Vikes timeout with the Gamecocks holding a commanding 69-54 lead. From there, South Carolina never let the margin slip back into single digits, cruising the rest of the way to secure the 13-point victory.
A newcomer sets the tone early
Much of that momentum traced directly back to one player’s hot stretch before the break. George Mason transfer Kory Mincy finished as the game’s leading scorer with 18 points, but the timing of his production mattered as much as the total — he poured in 14 of those 18 points during the final seven minutes of the first half alone, a burst that pushed South Carolina to a 42-40 halftime edge and effectively set up the blowout that followed. That kind of concentrated scoring run right before intermission often carries momentum into the locker room, and South Carolina’s second-half explosion suggests exactly that happened here.
Efficient shooting fueled the pullaway
The Gamecocks’ shooting improved dramatically as the game progressed, connecting on 54.5% of their field goal attempts in the second half alone en route to a 49.3% overall shooting mark for the game. South Carolina also knocked down seven three-pointers and converted 21-of-25 free throw attempts — a strong showing at the line that reflects disciplined shot selection and confident execution in high-pressure moments. Ball movement was another clear strength, with the Gamecocks finishing the contest with 23 assists on 33 made field goals, a nearly 70% assist rate that points to genuinely unselfish, well-distributed offense rather than one or two players dominating the ball.
Defense created the separation, too
South Carolina’s defense played just as significant a role in the final margin as its offense did. The Gamecocks forced 18 total turnovers, including 13 steals, while holding Victoria to just 16 made field goals across the entire second half — numbers that help explain how a competitive first-half game turned into a comfortable win so quickly. Generating that many extra possessions through turnovers, paired with improved shooting efficiency after the break, created the kind of compounding advantage that’s difficult for an opponent to overcome in a short window.
Depth showed up across the box score
Beyond Mincy’s team-leading total, South Carolina got four additional players into double figures: transfers Camden Heide (13), Aleksas Bieliauskas (12) and Shane Blakeney (12) all contributed significant scoring, while sophomore returner Hayden Assemian chipped in 10 points to go with a team-high eight rebounds. That kind of scoring balance across five different contributors, spanning both transfers and returning players, suggests a roster with legitimate depth rather than reliance on a single go-to scorer.
Several other newcomers made strong first impressions in more limited roles. Spain native Hugo López needed just nine minutes to record 8 points and 6 rebounds, an efficient showing on a per-minute basis. Grant Polk added 9 points, 3 rebounds and a team-high 3 steals, while Alabama transfer Davion Hannah rounded out a well-distributed stat line with 8 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals — production that touched nearly every statistical category in a single outing.
What’s next
South Carolina closes out its trip to the Baha Mar Hoops Summer League on Monday at 4 p.m. ET against The Bahamas National Team. The contest will feature live stats through StatBroadcast and will stream live on the FloSports Channel via Amazon Prime, giving fans another opportunity to evaluate this retooled roster before the season officially gets underway.
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