South Carolina believes tide is turning, prepares for East Carolina

Coming off a 26-win season and an appearance in the NCAA Tournament, South Carolina has struggled to regain its form from a year ago.

With wins over power-conference schools in its last two games, however, South Carolina (5-3) is on an upswing as it prepares to host East Carolina (7-2) on Saturday in Columbia, S.C.

The Gamecocks' victories have come over Virginia Tech in the third-place game of the Fort Myers Tip-Off, 70-60 on Nov. 27, and Boston College on Tuesday in the SEC/ACC Challenge, 73-51.

While those opponents are currently the two lowest-ranked major-conference teams on KenPom.com, the victories are a positive turn for South Carolina, which lost its season opener in shocking fashion to North Florida, 74-71.

"We've shown signs in these last two games of really doing some of those things on a consistent basis that will allow us to, hopefully, come pretty close to whatever our ceiling is," South Carolina coach Lamont Paris said.

The recent catalysts for the Gamecocks have been sophomores Collin Murray-Boyles, who totaled 32 points and 22 rebounds, and Morris Ugusuk, who drained 7 of 10 shots from 3-point range in the two wins.

South Carolina also has clamped down on defense, holding Boston College and Virginia Tech to a combined 36.2 percent shooting from the floor.

"I'm really excited to see where (the team) can take us this year," Paris said. "They've got a very high ceiling."

This will be the first game against a power-conference school for East Carolina, as well as its first true road test.

The Pirates will try to rebound from an ugly loss at home Tuesday to UNC Wilmington, 67-53.

Late in the second half of a winnable game, East Carolina had a scoring drought that lasted for 8:26 as it committed seven turnovers.

C.J. Walker led the Pirates with 16 points and Jordan Riley added 14 points and seven rebounds. East Carolina's top scorer, RJ Felton, had just three points on 1-for-12 shooting with five turnovers.

"We have to look up and look in the mirror and say, 'We got our butt kicked tonight,'" Pirates coach Michael Schwartz said Tuesday. "They came in here and they played better than us."

--Field Level Media