South Carolina defense leads upset of Syracuse

Gamecocks force 17 Orange turnovers

NEW YORK — South Carolina coach Frank Martin savored his team’s victory over No. 25 Michigan and then went straight to the videotape.

While his team enjoyed a flight to New York, Martin watched film of his last game at Kansas State — a loss to Syracuse in the 2012 NCAA Tournament. He discovered everything his former team did wrong against the Orange’s zone defense and vowed the Gamecocks would not repeat those miscues.

They didn’t and sprinkled in some dominating defense.

Sindarius Thornwell scored 16 points as South Carolina had enough offense to go along with its defense and never trailed in its 64-50 victory over No. 18 Syracuse on Saturday in the Brooklyn Hoops Holiday Invitational at Barclays Center.

“I slept on it and I said ‘I’ve got to change what I did’ and you saw we ran the bigs kind of up to the elbows,” Martin said. “We needed to lift the big up to the zone rather than try behind it. Once we lift the zone then find the cracks behind it so we can have space to shoot.

“Credit our guys. I don’t claim to be Einstein. I just try to do my job. They listened, they were in tune (and) they executed.”

South Carolina shot 45 percent and scored 30 points in the paint. The Gamecocks scored most of their points after frequently getting defensive stops via 12 steals and 17 Syracuse turnovers.

“Every game we come out and guard, that’s what our coaching staff and our team prides itself on, defense,” South Carolina guard PJ Dozier said. “We make our offense out of our defense.”

The Gamecocks’ effectiveness at getting through Syracuse’s zone and forcing turnovers resulted in their second win in three seasons against a Top 25 team in Brooklyn. On Jan. 2, 2014, South Carolina had a 64-60 victory over No. 9 Iowa State.

Thornwell made 9 of 10 free throws. He also had six rebounds, five assists, three steals and was named the MVP of the Invitational.

Maik Kotsar also had 16 points for South Carolina (6-0) while Dozier added 15 points and 10 rebounds for the Gamecocks, who gave up 12 of the first 18 rebounds but finished with a 37-30 margin on the glass.

No. 7 Virginia 63, Providence 52 — At Niceville, Fla., London Perrantes and Darius Thompson scored 11 points each and Virginia (60) beat Providence (4-2) to win the Emerald Coast Classic.

No. 9 Xavier 64, Northern Iowa 42 — At Cincinnati, J.P. Macura scored 18 points, and Xavier (6-0) dug in on defense against Northern Iowa (3-2) to win a rematch of teams playing for the second time in six days.

No. 12 Creighton 82, Loyola (Md.) 52 — At Omaha, Neb., Justin Patton made all eight of his shots and scored 14 of his 17 points in the second half, and Creighton (6-0) shot 74 percent after halftime to break away from Loyola (24).

No. 17 Purdue 79, NJIT 68 — At West Lafayette, Ind., Caleb Swanigan had 22 points and 13 rebounds, and freshman guard Carsen Edwards added 19 points for Purdue (5-1) against NJIT (3-4).

No. 25 Michigan 64, Mount St. Mary’s 47 — At Ann Arbor, Mich., Zak Irvin scored 14 points, Derrick Walton added 12 and Michigan (51) pulled away late in the first half against Mount St. Mary’s (1-6).

MOUNTAIN WEST

East Carolina 70, Air Force 63— At Savannah, Ga., B.J. Tyson had 18 points and Caleb White added 15 as East Carolina (5-2) knocked off Air Force (5-2) in the third place game of the Savannah Invitational.

GLOBAL SPORTS CLASSIC

Jacksonville State 76, Northern Arizona 63 — At Las Vegas, Christian Cunningham scored 19 points and added nine rebounds to help lead Jacksonville State (4-3) past Northern Arizona (2-6) at the final day of the Global Sports Classic.

Alabama State 76, Cal State Fullerton 67, OT — At Las Vegas, Rodney Simeon scored 24 points and Alabama State (1-5) made 8 of 9 free throws in overtime to defeat Cal State Fullerton (2-4) in the Global Sports Classic.