SEC Basketball: Alabama tops South Carolina in ugly four overtime game

Alabama is rising up the SEC basketball standings thanks to their latest win over South Carolina.

It wasn’t prettiest of games, but Avery Johnson and the Alabama Crimson Tide pulled out a huge home win, 90-86, over the No. 19 South Carolina Gamecocks in four overtimes on Tuesday evening.

The Crimson Tide shot 42 percent from the field overall, but they hit just 30 percent of their threes and turned the ball over 24 times.

Meanwhile, South Carolina was 3-of-30 from the field in the first half and didn’t make their 10th field goal of the game until late in the second half. They shot an ugly 26 percent overall, a brutal 16 percent from beyond the three-point line and had just seven assists on 23 made field goals.

Sindarius Thornwell, South Carolina’s top scorer, put up 44 points on 25-of-33 free throws, but he shot just 9-of-25 from the field, including 1-of-7 from three. Beyond Thornwell, the Gamecocks only had one other player score in double figures (P.J. Dozier, who had 21 points).

This was a meaningful win for Alabama’s program, as they are now 4th in the SEC standings behind the likes of South Carolina, Florida, and Kentucky. They are now a solid 14-9 on the season and are 7-4 in the SEC with wins over the Gamecocks and Georgia on the road.

This doesn’t mean Alabama is going to the NCAA Tournament (they’ve lost to Texas, Auburn twice and Arkansas), but they’ve made significant progress in Johnson’s second year. The Tide have good balance and young talents like Braxton Key, Avery Johnson Jr., Dazon Ingram and Ar’Mond Davis that will help them continue to grow in the future.

But the bigger story to come out of this game is the lack of offense from the Gamecocks. We know they can defend as good as any team in the nation, but what if they face a high-powered offense that is able to crack their pressure-packed defense during the NCAA Tournament?

Their offense would have to step up. Dozier and Thornwell need help and the Gamecocks need more flow in general on that end of the floor.

Duane Notice, in particular, needs to be more consistent. The senior guard hasn’t taken his offensive game to the next level as he averaged 11.8 points in his sophomore campaign, 10.8 points last year and is putting up just 10.5 points so far this season. If he can start playing at a higher level, that will take significant pressure off of the Gamecocks’ big guns.

Next: The projected field as it stands and the mid-major struggle

And that, in turn, could help make their offense that much better. The Gamecocks are a nuisance to play, but their flaws continue to be unveiled.

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