NEW YORK — South Carolina is getting the hang of winning NCAA Tournament games.
The Gamecocks, who hadn’t won a tournament game since 1973, got their third this year. One more, and it’s on to the Final Four.
“It’s a great win for the program,” Gamecocks guard Duane Notice said. “It’s a good feeling when we continue to make history, and I think once we get a taste of it, we kind of get addicted and want to continue doing it.”
Sindarius Thornwell scored 24 points and No. 7 seed South Carolina cruised past No. 3 seed Baylor 70-50 on Friday night in the East Regional semifinals, the Bears’ worst NCAA Tournament loss.
The Gamecocks (25-10) were in control from the middle of the first half on, mixing defenses and hustling all over the Madison Square Garden court to advance to the Elite Eight for the first time.
“We have been real good defensively all year. We were on point definitely today,” Gamecocks Coach Frank Martin said.
South Carolina will meet the winner of Friday’s late Wisconsin-Florida game Sunday with that trip to the Final Four at stake.
DJ Dozier and Chris Silva had 12 points each, and Notice added 11 for the Gamecocks.
Johnathan Motley had 18 points, 12 in the second half, for Baylor (27-8), which just couldn’t get any offense going. The Bears, who were ranked No. 1 for one week this season, missed 11 of their first 13 shots from the field, and it didn’t get a whole lot better later in the game. They finished 17 for 56 from the field
(30.4 percent), including 3 for 13 from three-point range.
Thornwell made defending Motley sound easy.
“We stayed aggressive and made his catches hard, and we knew that he likes to score in the paint and let his catches be extended outside, that way he got to take more than one dribble to score; he can’t just turn and shoot over the top of you,” Thornwell said.
Motley said the defense was “extremely tough.”
“That’s what they gameplanned for,” he said. “And they did a great job of executing their game plan. We couldn’t, really couldn’t buy a basket.”
South Carolina opened the second half on a 12-6 run to get the lead to 49-28. Baylor was able to close to 11 points, but South Carolina built the largest lead to 63-41.
The Gamecocks went on a 16-0 run that lasted 7:44 in the first half. They turned a 15-15 tie into a 31-15 lead with 2:50 left in the first half. The Bears went 0 for 10 from the field and committed 4 turnovers in the run. South Carolina’s biggest lead of the half was 37-20 on a three-pointer by Notice with 29 seconds to play. It was 37-22 at halftime.
The Bears shot just 25 percent from the field in the first half (8 of 32) and committed 7 turnovers.
“What they do is a great job of making it difficult, and then basketball’s such a game of momentum and after you get off to a bad start, sometimes it’s hard to get in a rhythm or hard to get in a flow,” Baylor Coach Scott Drew said.
Martin is glad the rest of the country is getting to see the Gamecocks and their intense defense.
“It’s beautiful to us. Which is what matters,” he said. “I’m sure there’s people who don’t like it. That’s their prerogative.”
FLORIDA 84,
WISCONSIN 83, OT
NEW YORK — Chris Chiozza went end to end and made a three-pointer at the buzzer to give Florida a victory against Wisconsin in the first overtime game of this NCAA Tournament.
Nigel Hayes had given the Badgers (27-10) a two-point lead with four seconds left on two free throws. With no timeouts left, the Gators inbounded to Chiozza and the point guard stopped right at the arc and dropped in the winner for Florida (27-8).
Wisconsin’s Zak Showalter forced overtime with a leaning three-pointer off one leg with 2.1 seconds left in regulation as the Badgers wiped out a 12-point deficit in the last 4:15.
Florida’s KeVaughn Allen (North Little Rock) led all scorers with 35 points on 11-of-24 shooting from the field and 9 of 10 free throws.
The No. 4-seed Gators (27-8) will play South Carolina on Sunday in an all-SEC regional final at Madison Square Garden. Florida is in the Elite Eight for the first time since 2014, and for the first time with second-year Coach Mike White — the man who replaced Billy Donovan in Gainesville.
Sports on 03/25/2017