USC downs Dawgs

It was neck-and-neck in the waning seconds. Carolina had come back from a nine-point, second half deficit to briefly take the lead with 50.5 seconds remaining on a driving layup by Downey. The Chester native split the Georgia 2-3 zone and lofted his right-handed shot over forward Trey Thompkins high off the glass and through to score the final points of the game.

Georgia (9-10, 1-5) passed the ball around looking for the final shot of the game but Downey, as well as senior Brandis Raley-Ross, forced a loose ball. Scrambling, Downey lunged through guard Dustin Ware giving the official no choice but to call a foul and put the Georgia player on the line for a one-and-one opportunity.

The officials, making certain to point out the nature of the free throw, had no choice but to feed Ware the ball as the UGA players huddled on the sideline with Fox leaving no one in the lane for the rebound. When Ware clanked his first shot, it was a simple rebound freshman Ramon Galloway as Georgia was forced to foul.

The reasoning to huddle and forget about mixing it up for a potential rebound was Downey, another one of the seemingly endless ways he has impacted a game. While Ware was attempting to shoot free throws, Fox was organizing his defense.

“Devan is so good, you’re concerned he is going to go coast-to-coast. We were trying to be sure we were organized in our pressure,” Fox said. “I had a lot of confidence in Dustin; he’s an 80-percent shooter at the line. That’s why we just had the one guy there.”

That was just six team fouls with 1.8 seconds left in the game meaning Carolina had to successfully inbound the ball again, which it did, to Galloway with .2 seconds remaining. Even though he missed the front end of the one-and-one, the game was essentially over.

“I didn’t think our team was particularly great,” Horn said. “But if you’re going to win games in this league and at this level, you’re going to have to find a way to get some wins on a night like tonight when maybe you’re not your best.”

Carolina jumped out to an early lead thanks to a pair of long range bombs from Downey on the opening two possessions.  A put back by forward Austin Steed helped the Gamecocks out to a 12-9 lead on 5-10 shooting in the first 4:53 of the game.

That’s when USC hit a cold stretch and UGA started to find its stroke. Carolina hit just five of its next 16 shots as the visitors stormed out to a big lead in front of 14,013 fans at the Colonial Life Arena. With just 3:51 remaining in the half, the Gamecocks found themselves behind 32-25.

Then, the Spinella show was on. The freshman flew in with a weakside block on Ebuka Anyaorah that brought the CLA to its feet for the first of many times over a three minute stretch. With Carolina trailing by six, the Colts Neck, N.J. native drilled back-to-back three pointers from the right wing to tie the ball game at 36 apiece.

Georgia entered the half with the lead though when Thompkins dropped in a pair of free throws. Downey missed his patented fadeaway jumper and Steed a tip to try to tie the ball game heading into the intermission.

At the end of the first half, Carolina was shooting 43.8-percent from the field connecting on 14-32 shots and 4-8 from behind the arc. Georgia shot 45.2-percent from the field on 14-31 shooting. Downey and Thompkins led all scorers in the first half with 13 points apiece.

Forward Travis Leslie, who was named SEC Player of the Week on Monday, opened the second half with on a tear scoring seven points in the first 4:10 of the final frame. His posterizing dunk on Steed caused the crowd to gasp and immediately feel some empathy for the Carolina forward knowing he would be on SportsCenter in a light he would not wish to be shown.

“There’s not many guys like Travis,” Fox said. “He’s a special athlete becoming a special player.”

Leslie scored 11 points in the first eight minutes of the second half to help the Bulldogs out to a lead as large as nine points. After that, he was held scoreless.

“We actually guarded him,” Horn said. “He’s a phenomenal athlete. He had one dunk in the second half where we reached for a ball but he’s not a tremendous shooter. The game plan was to make him drive and rise up above you and use that athleticism and shoot a challenged shot. I think we actually just guarded him a little bit better.”

But Carolina wasn’t going to go down without a fight. A pair of triples by freshman Ramon Galloway helped to keep the Gamecocks within striking distance. A three by Downey, an assist by the five-foot-nine guard to freshman Lakeem Jackson, and a deuce by Muldrow cut the UGA lead to three at 67-64 with 5:59 left in the game.

That prompted Fox to call time with his team showing signs of breaking.

Coming out of the timeout, guard Ricky McPhee drilled a three with Raley-Ross’s hand in his face but the USC senior came right back with a triple of his own to bring the Garnet Army back to life. Jackson’s block and Downey’s teardropper cut the lead to one and Fox was forced to burn another timeout.

Again, coming out of the timeout, Georgia knocked down a shot from behind the arc. It was guard Dustin Ware, who scored his fifth point of the game. But again, USC answered with a bomb. This time, it was Downey whose triple gave him 29 points for the game.

“They made some huge shots in the second half hitting three three’s at crucial times from three different guys that were very important,” Horn said.

The Gamecocks tied up the ball game heading into the under four minute timeout at 72 apiece but it was just a few seconds later that the Bulldogs had the lead again. Another alley-oop attempt, which would have been Leslie’s third of the game, failed but Thompkins grabbed the offensive rebound and scored the put back.

Carolina took its first lead with 1:43 left to play when Muldrow’s tip-in pushed the score to 76-74. Ware answered right back with a three-pointer in the face of Muldrow prompting the Gamecocks to call timeout with 1:05 remaining in the contest.

That’s when Downey struck again with a driving layup that kissed high off the glass and came down for his 33rd point of the game with 50.5 seconds remaining. That gave the Gamecocks a one-point lead as security began to line the arena with the yellow ropes.

“As the clock ticks down, he just plays better and better,” Horn said. “He made a bunch of tough, great shots again.”

Carolina finished the game shooting its highest percentage from three-point land this season at 52.9-percent and its highest field goal percentage in SEC play at 51.8-percent.

Downey has now scored over 30 points in five of his last seven games and is now averaging 22.9 points per game this season.

South Carolina will have the midweek off from action this week and will travel to Knoxville on Saturday 6:00 p.m.