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***2021-22 MBB South Carolina vs Benedict Exhibition Game Thread***

ConwayGamecock

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  SOUTH CAROLINA [SIZE= 18px]VS[/SIZE] BENEDICT COLLEGE ​



[SIZE= 20px]Gamecock Fanatics Official (Exhibition) Game Thread[/SIZE]​



SOUTH CAROLINA (0-0) VS. BENEDICT (0-0)
7 P.M.  |  COLUMBIA, S.C.  |  COLONIAL LIFE ARENA (18,000)
South Carolina Opponent History | Live Stats | Listen | Listen (Alternative) | Season Ticket Information

COLUMBIA, S.C. - South Carolina hosts Benedict on Thursday evening at Colonial Life Arena in its lone exhibition contest of the 2021-22 season.  Admission is free for the match-up, which is set for a 7 p.m. ET tip-off, with arena doors opening one hour prior to tip-off.  A live audio feed will be available for free via the official website of Gamecock Athletics, GamecocksOnline.com, and also on the Official Gamecocks App.

GAME INFORMATION
ARENA: Colonial Life Arena (18,000)
LISTEN: Free via GamecocksOnline.com and the Official Gamecocks App
  PLAY-BY-PLAY: Derek Scott
  ANALYST: Casey Manning
TICKETS: Free Admission
LIVE STATS: GamecocksOnline.com

PARKING
Parking for Thursday's exhibition will be available for $10 per vehicle in Colonial Life Arena parking lots.  A shuttle will also be available from the Pendleton Street Garage on campus.  For $10 fans will be able to park in the Garage and ride the shuttle to and from Colonial Life Arena.  Shuttle service will begin at 5 p.m.

TIP-OFF NOTABLES
> The meeting between the Gamecocks and Tigers is the first since the 2014-15 campaign when Carolina posted a 92-47 win over Benedict in exhibition play.  Then-senior guard Ty Johnson led all scorers in that contest with 23 points, while he also dished out six assists for the Gamecocks.
> South Carolina returns three of its top five scorers from a season ago, including senior forward Keyshawn Bryant (14.4 ppg), junior guard Jermaine Couisnard (10.1 ppg) and junior forward Wildens Leveque (6.1 ppg). 
> The Gamecocks welcome nine newcomers to the team this season, including a trio of freshmen in Devin Carter, Ta'Quan Woodley and Jacobi Wright.  Six transfers are also set for their first season at Carolina in Chico Carter Jr. (Murray State), Josh Gray (LSU), Brandon Martin (USC Upstate), James Reese V (North Texas), Erik Stevenson (Washington) and AJ Wilson (George Mason).
> Senior forward Tahj Green is Benedict's top returning scorer from last season when he averaged 17.1 points per outing.  He is also the team's top returning rebounder after collecting 10.4 per contest last season, and senior guard Tim Bing Jr., is the top returning assist maker, averaging 3.8 per game in 2020-21.

BY THE NUMBERS
3,018 - South Carolina's six incoming transfer student-athletes have combined to score 3,018 points during their college careers, led by Erik Stevenson's 826 career points. 
77 - Senior forward Keyshawn Bryant, who earned Preseason All-SEC Second-Team honors from the league coaches last week, has 77 career dunks.  Bryant is Carolina's top returning scorer (14.4 ppg) and rebounder (5.4 rpg) from last season.
211 - AJ Wilson saw action in 114 games during his career at George Mason.  As a junior, Wilson set GMU's all-time record for blocks in a single season with 92, and he concluded his career as the school's all-time record holder in the category with 211 blocks. 
87.3% - James Reese enters action this season having hit 62 of his 71 career attempts at the foul line, 87.3 percent.  Reese was 15-of-16 (93.8%) at the line as a freshman at Buffalo, 23-of-24 (95.8%) as a junior at North Texas, and he was 24-of-31 (77.4%) at the free throw line for the Mean Green last season.
3.2 - Junior guard Jermaine Couisnard is Carolina's top returning assist maker after averaging 3.2 per game last season.  For his career, Couisnard has 28 games with three or more assists, including his career high of 10, which he set in a home win over Mississippi State on March 3, 2020.

COMING UP NEXT
> South Carolina officially begins the 2021-22 season next Tuesday, Nov. 9, when it hosts USC Upstate in a 7 p.m. meeting at Colonial Life Arena.  Dave Weinstein (play-by-play) and John Williams (analyst) will have the call for the SEC Network+ broadcast.

https://gamecocksonline.com/news/2021/11/3/mens-basketball-gamecocks-set-for-thursday-exhibition-versus-benedict.aspx

 
This appears to be the first meeting between the two programs. Benedict went 9-1 last season: they chose to hold no official conference standing, as several conference members chose to cancel the season due to the pandemic, but played conference members that did play, as just non-conference games. In 2019-20, they went 14-16, and 9-10 in the SIAC Conference.

Here is a season preview from Brad Muller on the official MBB website:

https://gamecocksonline.com/news/2021/11/4/mens-basketball-season-preview.aspx

"We lost our physicality in the last year and a half," Martin said. "At the end of 2019-20, we started playing small. We didn't defend and rebound and put up the same physicality that I like. Last year, we never played with any physicality. I think we've got that back."

 
Gamecocks lead 54-39 at the half. Reese leads the way with 17 pts - 3-4 from the 3-pt. line. The team overall is 8-18 from behind the arc....Stevenson has 9 pts on 3-7 shooting from the three....

 
Gamecocks lead 78-58 at the mid-point of the 2ndhalf. Neither Couisnard nor Bryant has seen a single minute in this game thus far. Not sure why, but it bodes even better for the team to be doing so well with two of it's senior leaders not even playing.....

 
Gamecocks win 101-76. The offense was pretty strong - they shot 57% for the game and at one point was at 60% until about 5-6 minutes left in the game and they emptied the last of the reserves, and the shooting dropped off. The defense dropped off too, but overall it wasn't great: Benedict shot 36% for the game and only 26% for the 2nd half, but it was the rampant fouling by the Gamecocks that helped keep the game from being a blow-out.

And that's Frank Martin Basketball, right? We need to expect a MBB team that fouls and fouls and fouls as long as he's our head coach. Both teams were even in the fouling: 17 team fouls each. But for some reason we foul them in shooting situations always, while they manage their fouling more smartly. As such while we only had 7 free-throws (made 6 of them), Benedict took 25 FTs making 17 of those. So an awful lot of scoring for Benedict while the clock stood still, courtesy of the South Carolina Gamecocks.

Reese led the Gamecocks with 21 pts, Stevenson had 14 pts, Devin Carter scored 13 pts, and Gray added 10 pts with 12 rebounds, 3 blocks, and 2 steals. Overall the team was 9-26 from behind the arc (they were only 1-8 after the half), out-rebounded Benedict 49-36, and had 19 assists, 10 blocks, and 8 steals.....

 
Bryant was a definite no-go today, but if it was an official game he would have played according to David Cloninger. Couisnard warmed up with the team in pre-game drills but never took the floor. They weren't needed.


 
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