Cocks Stomp UK For 20-Win Season
South Carolina humiliated Kentucky on the hardwood last night to reach 20 wins for the first time in three seasons and all but wrap up an NCAA tournament bid in head coach Darrin Horn’s first year on the job.
The 77-59 blowout put the Gamecocks at 20-6 on the season, 9-4 in the Southeastern Conference.
By comparison, USC won just 9 SEC games over the past two seasons, combined.
Devan Downey – who staked an emphatic claim to SEC Player-of-the-Year honors – paced the Gamecocks as he has all year.
The versatile guard had 21 points, along with five steals and five assists, while Sam Muldrow and Dominique Archie led USC to a school-record 16 blocks.
Carolina never trailed during the game, and led by as many as 28 points in the second half.
The Gamecocks are now in sole possession of first place in the SEC East with three regular season games to go, and swept Kentucky for the first time in over a decade.
Even better, over 16,000 fans turned out to watch the biggest game in Columbia since USC defeated the Wildcats in 1997.
Regular season road games against Vanderbilt and Georgia remain for USC, as well as a rematch at home against Tennessee – which defeated Carolina 82-79 in Knoxville on Jan. 17.
South Carolina has lost just once at home this year, to arch-rival Clemson.
The Tigers – ranked No. 16 – fell tonight at home to Virginia Tech, in case you were wondering.
After starting the season 16-0, Clemson has gone 6-5 since.
Of course, they do play in the toughest basketball conference in America, which is why they have already locked up their NCAA berth.
The Tigers wrap-up their season with road games at No. 25 Florida State and No. 14 Wake Forest, with a home game against Virginia.
Comments
By reggie on February 26th, 2009 at 1:20 am
this is the first time that ive been excited about south carolina (as a state). ever.
By Will Folks on February 26th, 2009 at 1:26 am
plus it puts more heat on Spurrier.
By Trey on February 26th, 2009 at 4:17 am
Also a pretty amazing testament to basketball in South Carolina that both Trevor Booker and Devan Downey have been named to the shortlist for player of the year.
Also note Sic Willie’s selective memory in leaving out Clemson’s 11 point win over Carolina earlier this year.
By Toyota Kawaski on February 26th, 2009 at 9:18 am
There you go more shitty sports reporting “all but wrapped up an N$AA Tournament bid” they have plenty of work left to do kind of like the Blowhard Fish being sub-A ball like i said stick to political rumor reporting.Besides does fits even belong to the GCC.
By CLEMSONisBETTER on February 26th, 2009 at 9:24 am
Also note Sic Willie’s selective memory in leaving out Clemson’s 27 point win over DUKE earlier this year…
or maybe he was beating his girlfriend that night…?
By Nancy on February 26th, 2009 at 9:59 am
Will,
The Citadel is on a 10 game winning streak, for a team that lost all but one game last year! I know we’re not USC or anything, but don’t forget the little guys. :)
http://www.charleston.net/news/2009/feb/26/bulldog_pride_runs_family73073/
By Pat Hendrix on February 26th, 2009 at 10:19 am
You fellas notice that it was a post about USC’s victory? Why would he mention the Duke game?
By the way, I suggest you read a little closer. He did mention Clemson defeating SC.
Oh, congrats on the VT game. Snicker.
By reggie on February 26th, 2009 at 5:55 pm
well, its obvious usc will get a bid. i think its POSSIBLE for them to get to the sweet sixteen. its a strech though. but spurrier, like every other usc coach prior to horn, is on his last limb of coaching and will finish his career here.
is a SEC title possible (in basketball)? i sure think so. and im a florida state fan. so high praise for the gamecocks this year.
as for clemson, you guys have always been incosistant. just like us noles. but your pretty decent too. and that clemson-usc game wasnt as bad as people think. i was there. the worst it ever got was that nasty dunk that was put on that white boy from usc. but other than that, usc came back in the last minuets for awhile and the only reason why the score got racked up was due to intentional fouls/bonus. so its not like you ran them out of town from the get-go.
usc should have a pretty good team next year.