South Carolina shocks Duke with incredible 2nd half
It's amazing what a home crowd can do for a college hoops team.
South Carolina pulled off arguably the biggest upset of the NCAA tournament on Sunday, using a second-half blitz to knock off No. 2 Duke 88-81 in front of a raucous crowd just 103 miles from its Columbia campus.
A March Madness win over Duke is noteworthy on any occasion, but this one resulted in the first Sweet 16 trip (in a 64-team field, first since 1973 in general) in South Carolina history.
The Gamecocks started slow, going to the locker room down 30-23 after a dismal first-half performance that saw them make just seven shots from the field - an atrocious 20 percent of attempts. At least their stingy defense, ranked fourth in the country by Ken Pomeroy, held firm and kept the game within shouting distance.
Whatever the fiery Frank Martin said in his halftime speech obviously had a profound effect, because South Carolina was a completely different team in the second half. The Gamecocks poured in 20-of-28 attempts from the field after the break, improving by an absurd 51 percent over the opening 20 minutes.
It was SEC Player of the Year Sindarius Thornwell leading the way once again, dropping 24 points, six rebounds, and five assists. While he's often been a one-man show on offense this season, the star senior had plenty of help on Sunday, as Chris Silva and Duane Notice added 17 points each, while Rakym Felder dropped 15 off the bench.
On the other end, the loss certainly stings for a Duke team that was the odds-on favorite to win the title at the start of the season. The Blue Devils survived most of the season without a true point guard, but that deficiency reared its ugly head against the Gamecocks' swarming defense.
Duke averaged just 11 turnovers per game all season, but South Carolina forced 18 in this game, including five each from freshmen Frank Jackson and Jayson Tatum. That resulted in South Carolina attempting 10 more shots than the Blue Devils could hoist up.
South Carolina also put the clamps on the Blue Devils' leading scorer, Luke Kennard, holding the sophomore star to just 11 points on 1-of-6 shooting.
Much will be made of the fact that Sunday's game was played so close to South Carolina's campus despite the Gamecocks being seeded seventh. The regional was originally slated for Greensboro, N.C., but was moved by the NCAA due to the controversial HB2 law in that state.
Greensboro is 51 miles from Duke's campus - and 183 miles from South Carolina - which would have created a much friendlier home atmosphere for the Blue Devils. With the way the Gamecocks played in the second half, though, it may not have mattered.