Postgame audio - Coach Sydney Johnson:
Four players scored in double figures for South Carolina as the Gamecocks handed Princeton a defeat by the largest margin of victory for a visiting team in the 40 year history of Jadwin Gym.
Devan Downey had 22 points, seven steals and six assists to pace USC. Zam Fredrick added 20 in the 84-58 win.
Princeton had clawed their way through intense early pressure to take a 24-23 lead with 5:58 left in the first half on a Zach Finley layup created by a penetrating Jason Briggs.
The Tiger advantage lasted all of 16 seconds as Evaldas Baniulis' scooping drive under the extended arm of Kareem Maddox would begin a 15-0 run that concluded the half.
“We got some shots that didn’t go down [during the South Carolina run],” said Princeton head coach Sydney Johnson. “We went through a woeful stretch there. They’re playing faster and their pace overwhelmed us. If we were able to continue to make some baskets, it might have been a different picture.”
Early in the game, it looked like Princeton might never get the ball across half court.
Downey caught the opening tip for South Carolina and drove straight down the center of the lane to start the scoring. Briggs could not get the ball over the midcourt stripe in less than ten seconds and the ball immediately went back to the Gamecocks. Downey missed a three point shot but no Tiger defenders accounted for Fredrick, who raced in to bank home Downey's carom.
Six of South Carolina's first ten points came on put-backs and tip-ins as the Gamecocks built a 13-4 lead. Princeton turned the ball over five times in the game's first four minutes.
"It is hard to turn the ball over that many times and give your opponent that many second chances to hurt you," said Johnson "I think they are things we can correct, tonight it was hard to do that because of the pressure."
Down by nine, the Tigers began to find their rhythm. When Princeton was able to get into a half court set, better things happened. Conversely, when South Carolina was forced to play controlled basketball, they had less success than when they were flying all over the floor.
The Tigers trailed 19-11 with 13:31 to go after Baniulis cut to the rim.
Marcus Schroeder, in to give Princeton another ball handler to combat South Carolina's pressure, sized up a three pointer from well behind the arc with the shot clock in single digits to bring Princeton within five. Next time down the floor Briggs was long with a three but Finley grabbed the rebound on the other side of the rim and went back up for two.
When Briggs drove the lane and South Carolina did not slide over to help on defense, the Tigers had cut the Gamecocks lead down to 19-18.
Finley's layup provided Princeton with a single, short-lived lead as South Carolina immediately took control of the night. Following the Baniulis layup, Dan Mavraides missed a three pointer that led to Downey scoring in transition.
A diagonal bounce pass from Downey to Dominque Archie on the baseline for a two-handed slam concluded the first half, as Princeton headed off the floor down 38-24.
Things did not get much better for the orange and black when play resumed.
"We came out of halftime and we were as bad as we've been and that was disappointing, but we'll bounce back from that," Johnson observed.
The Tigers cut the Gamecocks' lead to 13 on two occasions, the second coming when Maddox muscled a shot up going baseline and drew a foul with 16:35 to go. Princeton could not get any closer, turning the ball over 14 more times after the break.
"The pressure is hard to simulate in practice, and we worked at that," said Johnson. "Then it seemed to soften up and I felt like we weren't prepared for that moment, where it was like 'ok, now we can run our stuff and we can get into it relatively the way we want to,' and then we didn't execute."
The Tigers committed 26 turnovers against South Carolina's pressure, which led to 31 Gamecocks points.
Notes:
-Princeton finished the night 21-49 from the field (42.9%), 5-15 from three (33.3%) and 11-15 at the stripe (73.3%). South Carolina was 32-59 for the game (54.2%), 3-10 outside (30.0%) and 17-23 from the line (73.9%).
-Dan Mavraides was Princeton's high man with 15 points, all coming after intermission. Freshman guard Doug Davis hit double figures for the fifth straight game, recording 13 points on 6-8 shooting.
-The result was the Tigers' worst home defeat since a 30 point loss to Albright in 1929. It was also Princeton's biggest home defeat since a 73-48 loss to Penn in 1999.
-Princeton players were not made available to the media after the game.
