Late Shot Lifts South Carolina to Win Over Clemson

South Carolina has now won two of the past three against Clemson in the annual rivalry matchup on the hardwood as the Gamecocks knocked off the Tigers at home on Friday night.

Jason Priester All Clemson

COLUMBIA, S.C.- Clemson got PJ Hall back earlier than originally expected, but the veteran big man's return wasn't enough as the Tigers fell on the road to rival South Carolina 60-58. 

It was the Gamecocks' second win over the Tigers in the past three meetings and their first at home since 2014.

"Very physical game," head coach Brad Brownell said. "I'm disappointed, I just didn't think we played as well as we have in practice, in terms of offensive execution. Certainly, some of the credit for that is because of the physicality of South Carolina."

Chico Carter Jr. hit a jumper with 0.3 seconds remaining to give the Gamecocks the thrilling win over the Tigers, and first-year head coach Lamont Paris his first victory in the rivalry series.

In front of a lively home crowd, the Gamecocks got a big night from Carter Jr. who led the team with 16 points, including going 4-of-6 from beyond the arc. 

Freshman sensation GG Jackson pitched in with 12 points and Jacobi Wright added 10. Jackson also added eight boards and two steals.

South Carolina shot just 38% on the night but owned the glass, outrebounding Clemson 50-32, with 19 of those coming on the offensive end.

"Obviously, the story is 19 offensive rebounds," Brownell said. "Like it's just hard to win when you give a team that many opportunities. They're big and strong. They've got big, long bodies coming at you, physical bodies, and they probably wore us down a little bit. So I'm disappointed in our rebounding effort."

After hitting six of their first 10 shots to open the game Clemson then went cold, having multiple extended scoring droughts in the first half. The Tigers would hit on just five of their final 20 shots from the field in the opening frame and the Gamecocks went on a 14-2 run to give South Carolina a 35-26 lead at the break.

Clemson would slowly claw their way back into it, finally tying it up at 58-58 on two Brevin Galloway free throws with seven seconds left in the game. That would set up the final heroics on the other end by Carter.

Hall led the Tigers with 15 points in his season debut, going 7-of-12 from the floor. Chase Hunter added 13 points and Tyson pitched in with 10, shooting 2-of-5 from behind the 3-point line.

"PJ, it's remarkable that he played as well as he did," Brownell said. "I mean, it really is. This poor guy, what he's had to deal with since last year playing hurt and he's really had no offseason, it's all just been conditioning and a little bit of individual basketball stuff. And then the last two weeks he's been practicing with our team."

"For him to finish as many plays as he did is a testament to his talent. So I'm really happy for him. And he was still very rusty and actually ran a player or two  wrong for us down the stretch that we got to clean up because he hasn't been with us as much, but obviously, we're super excited about having him back."

South Carolina improves to 2-0 on the young season while Clemson drops to 1-1.  Clemson's odds of winning the ACC regular season championship are currently +9500, according to Fanduel.com.

Up Next: Clemson returns home to face USC-Upstate on Tuesday night. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. and the game will be streamed on ACCNX.