In a last-ditch effort to claw back in to Saturday’s game against Missouri, South Carolina met Tiger point guard Jordan Geist with full-court pressure as Geist brought the ball up the floor with about 90 seconds on the clock. Geist passed to senior forward Kevin Puryear. Puryear, not exactly known for his ball-handling, stood behind the mid-court line, but no Gamecock player came near him, so he dribbled the ball to the three-point arc. One defender finally confronted him, but South Carolina continued to face-guard the Missouri guards, leaving Puryear with no easy outlet for a pass. So, after a moment’s hesitation, Puryear, spun, drove the ball toward the basket, initiated contact with his right hip and scooped the ball toward the rim with his right hand while he fell. It fell through the rim. As he laid on his back, Puryear pumped his fist, releasing some of the frustration pent up from a disappointing senior season.
Puryear contributed a season-high 18 points in a 78-63 win that alleviated some frustration for the entire Missouri team. The win snapped a season-high four-game losing streak for the Tigers. For once, it was Missouri’s opponent that entered the game shorthanded due to injury, struggled through foul trouble to its best post player and ran out of steam late. Even though the game was competitive — South Carolina cut the Tiger lead to four points with fewer than five minutes to play — Missouri never trailed.
Puryear, who hadn’t scored in double figures since a Dec. 29 matchup against Morehead State, said he started putting too much pressure on himself due to his struggles during conference play. With each poor performance, he grew more anxious, which only led to more mistakes. Saturday, he said he made a conscious decision to try to play more free.
“I really have just been putting a lot of pressure on myself to perform well and kind of just inside my own head, because I want to do so well and I love this school and I love my team and really just want to bring everything I can to my team,” Puryear said. “I think it just got to a point where I was really just overthinking the game. I’ve been playing this game since I was five years old, I know how to play the game, so today I just told myself, you know what? Go for it. Leave all the thoughts, doubts, whatever I had in my head, just leave it in the locker room and go out and play as hard as I could today.”
Head coach Cuonzo Martin, who has called the power forward position the most important spot for Missouri’s offense this season, called Missouri “a different team” when Puryear plays well.
“Mark (Smith) goes down, so now you lose that production,” Martin said, “(and) you don’t get the production you expect from a Kevin Puryear going into the season — I mean, everyone expect he at least would average 10,12 points a game. When you don’t get that production, you don’t have enough firepower offensively to be good in this league.”
Puryear wasn’t the only player who benefitted from a shift in mindset. Martin attributed the performance of several others to playing freely, most notably reserve center Reed Nikko. Nikko, who has been thrust into more playing time than the coaching staff likely hoped due to recurring foul trouble for Jeremiah Tilmon, made the most of his minutes Saturday. Nikko scored eight points on four-of-four shooting and contributed four rebounds, including at least two that led to second-chance points. Missouri outscored South Carolina by 21 points during his 18 minutes of action.
“The biggest thing with Reed, he presses himself so much because he wants to be good,” Martin explained. “He’s not afraid of competition, he’s battle tested, he competes and all that, but he puts so much pressure on himself to be good and be productive, and then he’s not productive because of that. Just really kind of let go and play basketball, because I think when he does that he’s a better basketball player.”
Equally important to their offensive contributions was the rebounding efforts of Missouri’s frontcourt players. The Tigers held South Carolina center Chris Silva, who averages 7.4 rebounds per game, without a board Saturday. It was the first game all season in which Silva hasn’t recorded a rebound, and the first such game in more than two years. The came during Silva’s sophomore season, on February 21, 2017.
South Carolina coach Frank Martin said the Tigers frustrated Silva, who fouled out in 15 minutes.
“He was disengaged today,” Frank Martin said. “He wasn’t in a good place.”
Missouri’s lead hovered around 10 points for much of the second half, but South Carolina hung around and a thunderous Keyshawn Bryant dunk eventually cut the deficit to four with 5:54 remaining. The home crowd cheered nervously; they had seen Missouri give up leads late earlier this season. Saturday, however, the Tigers answered the bell, thanks to another player who enjoyed a breakout game, freshman guard Torrence Watson. Watson hit a three-pointer to extend the lead to seven points. Then, after he missed another three and Nikko kept the possession alive with an offensive rebound, he drained one from several feet beyond the arc. Watson finished the game with a career-high 20 points.
“I was really feeling it tonight, and my teammates kept giving me the ball, so I was like, you guys going to give me the ball in the right spots, I’m going to knock them down for you,” Watson said.
In the grand scheme, Saturday’s result doesn’t change much about Missouri’s season. The Tigers will still likely play on the first day of the SEC Tournament and have no chance of returning to the NCAA Tournament, barring a miraculous stretch in Nashville. But the smiles from players after the game showed they needed a win — Puryear most of all. Asked about the scooping and-one in the final minutes, he couldn’t help but smile.
“That was God for sure, because I ain’t never done that before,” he laughed. “But it went in, so it was a good take I guess. I didn’t know I had that in my bag.”
TURNING POINT: South Carolina scored the first bucket of the second half to cut Missouri’s lead to two points, but the Tigers responded by picking up the tempo. Geist scored two buckets in transition and Puryear scored twice as well to give Missouri an 8-0 run in less than two minutes. Missouri never gave up the lead after that.
IT WAS OVER WHEN: South Carolina fought back and made the game interesting, but Missouri held on thanks in large part to Watson’s back-to-back three-pointers. Puryear’s bucket and free throw iced the victory, extending the lead to 13 points with 1:14 remaining.
CAUSE FOR OPTIMISM: For a few possessions, it looked like Missouri might tighten up and relinquish yet another double-digit lead. Instead, once South Carolina cut the lead to four points, the Tigers scored on four consecutive possessions to put the game away. We haven’t seen that ability to put a game out of reach all that often this season. Plus, the win snaps a season-high four-game losing streak. After tasting victory for the first time in 18 days, perhaps the Tigers can carry the momentum into their final two games of the regular season, both of which come against beatable opponents.
CAUSE FOR CONCERN: The main reason this game was competitive for a half was due to a familiar issue for the Tigers: turnovers. Missouri gave the ball away 10 times in the first half and 15 times in the game, and that was against a team that rarely pressures ball-handlers. The Tigers have shown they can’t overcome a minus-five turnover deficit in most games.
STOCK UP: Kevin Puryear. After a senior season that has been largely disappointing, Puryear looked like his younger self Saturday. He was active from the opening tip and assertive in demanding the ball and drawing fouls. As Martin said, Missouri is a different team when he plays well offensively.
STOCK DOWN: Xavier Pinson. Pinson was a contributor to the turnover troubles in the first half, and as a result he hardly played in the second. Pinson didn’t score and turned the ball over three times in 10 minutes on the floor. It’s the second game in a row Pinson has played 10 minutes or fewer.
UP NEXT: Missouri (13-15, KenPom No. 90) will travel to Georgia (10-18, KenPom No. 110) on Wednesday. Tipoff is set for 5:30 p.m.
