South Carolina MBB grinds out home win over Radford. Three things we learned

South Carolina’s Christmas wish list probably didn’t include a nail-biter against a Big South Conference team, but that’s exactly what the Gamecocks got.

In the early going Sunday, it looked like the Gamecocks might leave a win wrapped up under the Christmas tree. They instead pulled away for a hard-fought 74-48 victory over Radford at Colonial Life Arena.

“The games are hard, and when I say ‘these games,’ I’m talking about just the proximity to a holiday or break that these guys have anticipated,” USC head coach Lamont Paris said. “We were a little disjointed. And our focus, we were not in full and clear focus in the first half.”

It was a microcosm of what the nonconference schedule has been for USC (9-3) — start slow, fight back, win by double-digits.

“I don’t really think about the start necessarily or making adjustments to try to get specifically the start to be better,” Paris said. “You want it to be better. You have a way of doing certain things. You hope guys do those things early in the game. We haven’t played well.”

Radford (10-5), the Gamecocks’ fourth-highest nonconference opponent in the NET rankings, held a 36-30 lead at halftime. While the Highlanders were expected to provide a pre-holiday test for the Gamecocks, it was a bit of a surprise that they were the ones controlling the game early.

For a while, USC’s offense looked like it was still searching for its holiday spirit. But the Gamecocks finally woke up after halftime. Back-to-back Jamarii Thomas 3-pointers early in the second half lit a fire under the offense.

Next came two separate 6-0 runs by the Gamecocks, the first of which put them back in front for the first time since the 15-minute mark of the first half.

South Carolina closed the game on a 34-6 run. What had been a tight contest in the first half suddenly looked more like a runaway victory by the final buzzer.

“Just changing the intensity,” Thomas said of what changed at the half. “The halftime speech was just — it came out sloppy. A lot of it was (being) ready to go home, but just changing the defensive intensity and pressure.”

Thomas led all scorers with 18 points. Sophomore Collin Murray-Boyles added 15 points, seven rebounds and a career high-tying four blocks. Senior transfer Nick Pringle also had 12 points and eight rebounds, going 10 of 10 from the free-throw line.

South Carolina will wrap up nonconference play against Presbyterian on Dec. 30. Before that, they’ll enjoy a brief Christmas break with a little extra holiday cheer.

Here are three observations from South Carolina’s win over Radford:

Energetic but sloppy start

South Carolina seemed to come out with more fire on Sunday. It seemed to carry over from the quick start against from Tuesday’s win over rival Clemson.

Sunday’s start, however, came with some sloppiness on the offensive end. The Gamecocks turned it over five times in the first six minutes of the game, leading to an early 14-6 deficit. They had nine turnovers total in the first half.

Nothing doing without CMB

Murray-Boyles has been the main offensive engine for the Gamecocks this season, and that’s caused teams to double team the sophomore forward. He still had eight points, two rebounds and two blocks in Sunday’s first half.

But doubling him slowed down the Gamecock offense as a whole. As has been the case in most of the nonconference games, the Gamecocks found their stroke midway through the first half with Thomas and Jacobi Wright both making 3-pointers to tie things up down the stretch.

But even that wasn’t enough. Radford responded with an 11-3 run toward the end of the half.

Cam Scott sighting

Highly-touted four-star recruit Cam Scott hasn’t gotten off to the strongest start this season, coming in averaging just 2.7 points a game. He was one of the lone bright spots for the Gamecocks in the first half on Sunday.

Though USC had a sluggish start overall, he went on a personal 5-0 run to give USC a bit of juice. He finished with his best scoring performance of the season with nine points in just 14 minutes..

“I think Cam’s making good progress,” Paris said. “He’s growing a lot as a player.”

Next four games

• Dec. 30 vs. Presbyterian, 7 p.m. (SEC Network)

• Jan. 4 at Mississippi State, 2 p.m. (SEC Network)

• Jan. 8 vs Alabama, 7 p.m. (SEC Network)

• Jan. 11 vs Auburn, 1 p.m. (SEC Network)