South Carolina opened the season in disappointing fashion but now sets its sights on a second straight victory when the Gamecocks battle Towson on Tuesday night at Columbia, S.C.
South Carolina fell to North Florida in its opener before bouncing back with an 86-64 rout of South Carolina State on Friday.
Jacobi Wright scored a career-best 20 points and Collin Murray-Boyles had 19 points and a career-high 16 rebounds.
Murray-Boyles leads the Gamecocks in scoring (17 points per game) and rebounding (11.5). Wright is averaging 16 points on 72.2 percent shooting (13-of-18) and a team-best 4.5 assists.
Wright also knocked down four 3-pointers against South Carolina State.
“Jacobi Wright, just in his DNA as a basketball player, is the kind of guy who’s going to do those things more often,” South Carolina coach Lamont Paris said of Wright.
The Gamecocks never trailed, boasted a 51-36 rebounding edge and held South Carolina State to 3-of-16 shooting from 3-point range.
But Paris wasn’t pleased with his own team’s long-range shooting. South Carolina was 8-of-27 — Wright was 4-of-7 and the rest of the team was 4-of-20.
“I can’t make them make it,” Paris said. “All I can do is provide the environment that they feel comfortable taking those shots.”
Towson (1-1) split its first two games, losing at Saint Mary’s in its opener before shellacking USCAA member Penn State Wilkes-Barre 89-34 on Friday.
Tomiwa Sulaiman made a career-high six points while scoring 20 points and Tyler Tejada added 15. The Tigers made 14 3-pointers, two shy of the school record.
Tejada leads Towson with a 16.5 scoring average and Dylan Williamson is contributing 12.5 per game.
The Tigers would certainly like to post an attention-grabbing victory after stringing together three straight seasons of 20 or more wins.
Towson hasn’t played in the NCAA Tournament since 1991 but this group has made it a goal to end the long drought.
“We’re going to take it one day at a time, one game at a time,” Tigers guard Nendah Tarke recently said. “We know that that’s our end goal. We’re far from that now, but if we keep up with the right habits and doing the right things, everything should take care of itself.”
This is the third meeting between the schools. South Carolina won both of the first two with the most recent matchup being a 65-55 victory on Dec. 30, 1997.
