ATLANTA (AP) — Mike Boynton made sure South Carolina kept its NCAA tournament hopes alive. Boynton scored 18 points, hitting all six of his field goals from beyond the 3-point line, to lead the Gamecocks to an 85-64 win over LSU in the quarterfinal round of the Southeastern Conference tournament Friday.
South Carolina (23-9) will play Kentucky in a semifinal Saturday. The Gamecocks lost 70-57 to the Wildcats two years ago at the Georgia Dome.
Tarence Kinsey, who hit a 5-foot runner and the ensuing free throw for a 72-58 lead with 4:08 remaining, joined Josh Gonner in scoring 14 points for South Carolina, which hit 12-of-21 shots from beyond the 3-point arc.
LSU, led by Antonio Hudson’s 25 points, suffered a major setback in its bid to advance to the NCAA tournament for the second straight year.
Since losing leading scorer Jaime Lloreda to an injured left foot for the remainder of the season in a Feb. 18 loss to Auburn, LSU (18-10) has dropped seven of eight. LSU had a 15-point lead midway through the first half, but the Tigers couldn’t contain South Carolina in the paint.
The Gamecocks had lost three of four before beating Arkansas 91-81 on Thursday, but Boynton scored all five of his field goals on 3-pointers against the Razorbacks, too.
LSU had reached the semifinals in three of the last four years, and the Tigers had won their first SEC tournament game in the same span.
The Tigers, dropping to 3-7 at the Georgia Dome, got 14 points from Brandon Bass, who tied Darnell Lazare with a game-high nine rebounds.
Carlos Powell led South Carolina with seven rebounds and five assists.
Renaldo Balkman had 11 points to lead the Gamecocks in outscoring LSU 24-13 from the bench.
LSU shot just 32 percent (8-of-25) in the second half as Gonner gave South Carolina its first double-digit lead with a 3-pointer from the right side of the key with 8:35 remaining. The Tigers were just 3-of-15 on 3-point attempts in the second half.
The Gamecocks improved to 16-1 when scoring 70 or more points. South Carolina trailed 40-39 at halftime, but the Gamecocks went to 2-13 when trailing at intermission.
QUOTES
South Carolina Head Coach Dave Odom
On the game…
“We looked like the team that did play yesterday. We never got a handle on our game defensively in the first 10 minutes. But, it was a hard fought game. The key was that we were able to close it down to one by the half. Sometimes it’s not what the coaches do, but what the players do.”
On both teams being without their big players…
“We might have had an advantage over LSU because we have been able to get used to playing without Rolando (Howell). LSU hasn’t had that advantage.”
On Kentucky…
“We are getting ready to play one of the best teams in the country tomorrow, but that’s who you want to play at this point in the season.”
Michael Boynton, Jr.
On the game…
“It was a hard fought game. Both teams wanted to come out with the win. We just didn’t have the energy in the beginning, but we found it shortly before the end of the half. Our offense picked up energy off our defense.” “In the first half we played as if we were trying to figure out how they were going to play. We weren’t aggressive enough in the beginning.”
LSU Head Coach John Brady
On the game…
“The first 16 minutes we played as good as we could. South Carolina was more physical through the rest of the game and we didn’t match that. We missed some good shots, as well as free throws. South Carolina expanded the score and took something out of our team in the last seven minutes. South Carolina made some really big shots. There was an inability to stop them in the second half. I appreciate what our players have done considering the changes our team has been through the last two and a half weeks.”
On LSU getting a bid to the NCAA Tournament…
“I’m not worried about that right now. I know that we will be playing somewhere next week, the NCAA or the NIT. I guess the question is should we be held accountable for losing a player due to circumstances out of our control.”
Antonio Hudson
On the game…
“The first 15 minutes we played hard and South Carolina extended their defense and made shots over us. That’s just the game of basketball.”
Darrel Mitchell
On the sense of urgency for a win…
“We knew we needed this win. We came out and played hard and we fell short in this game.”
GAME NOTES
Series Notes (Updated after the game):
All-Time Series: South Carolina leads, 11-6
SEC Tournament: South Carolina leads, 2-0
Regular-Season Series: South Carolina won, 1-0 (SC 61, LSU 55 on Jan. 24 in Columbia)
This is just the second meeting ever between the two schools in the SEC Tournament, but it is the third time the two teams faced off in a tournament … After downing LSU, 85-76 in the SEC Tournament in New Orleans (Mar. 7, 1996), USC defeated the Tigers, 74-68, in the consolation game of the 1996 Maui Invitational in Lahaina, Hawaii.
South Carolina Notes:
- South Carolina advances to the SEC Tournament semifinals for the fourth time in the last seven years.
- After allowing 31 points in the game’s first 10 minutes, South Carolina’s defense returned to form and allowed just 33 points over the game’s final 30 minutes.
- South Carolina had just 18 points in the first 12:30 of the game, but scored 21 points in the final 7:30 of the opening half and reeled off 11 points in the first three minutes of the second half — a run of 32 points in a little more than 10 minutes … USC finished with 85 points, scoring 67 of those points in the game’s final 27:30.
- Senior Mike Boynton, Jr., who had 32 points and was 5-of-10 from the floor (all three pointers) vs. Arkansas Thursday, was 6-of-9 from the field (again all three pointers) against LSU … He is 11-of-19 from long range in the tournament and needs just three more three pointers to tie the SEC Tournament record for triples in a tourney with 14 (Travis Ford, Kentucky, 1993).
- Boynton’s six three pointers broke the USC record for threes in an SEC Tournament game, one better than Boynton’s record of five he set against Arkansas yesterday.
- South Carolina held Arkansas to 18 first-half points and only five field goals Thursday … LSU finished the first half with 40 points and surpassed the 18 point mark with only seven minutes gone in the period.
- Arkansas scored 63 second-half points in the second half of Thursday’s first round game, 52 of those in the final 11 minutes … LSU had 31 points in the first 10 minutes of today’s game, meaning the SEC’s top defensive team had allowed 83 points in just less than 21 minutes of action … Carolina turned around to hold the Tigers to just nine points over the final 10 minutes of the opening half.
LSU Notes:
- LSU had 40 points in the first half, …. The output was the highest for the Tigers this season in the first half against an SEC team … The previous high was 38 points against Tennessee on Feb. 4 in Baton Rouge … LSU’s top first-half output was 44 points against UAB on Dec. 27 in New Orleans.
- Antonio Hudson had 25 points, a career high … He tied the mark with the last of his five-consecutive three pointers with 17 minutes to play in the game … Hudson’s previous career high was 24 points vs. Vanderbilt on Mar. 7, 2002 in the SEC Tournament here at the Georgia Dome … He had just one point in the final 17 minutes of the contest.
- Hudson’s five three pointers also set a career high … His previous best was four triples, which he set on a number of occasions, including twice this season.
- Darnell Lazare had nine rebounds to set a career high … His previous high was six boards against Auburn on Feb. 18 in Baton Rouge.