COLUMBIA, S.C. — Ta'Lon Cooper scored 20 points and Jacobi Wright scored 14 with four 3-pointers as South Carolina continued its home dominance over No. 6 Kentucky with a 79-62 victory Tuesday night.
The Gamecocks (16-3, 4-2 Southeastern Conference) beat their highest-ranked opponent at home since defeating No. 1 Kentucky 68-62 14 years ago. In that game, South Carolina defeated future NBA All-Stars John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins to take the victory.
In this one, the Gamecocks had the highest scoring team in the country, which averaged over 91 points, their lowest output of the season.
It's their second-largest win against Kentucky in series history, trailing only an 18-point victory in 2009, according to ESPN Stats & Information research. It also marks their first consecutive wins over Kentucky since they won three in a row against the Wildcats from 2009-10.
South Carolina's players “have a lot of faith, a lot of faith in themselves,” coach Lamont Paris said.
They also have the SEC's best defense, which kept Kentucky's high-scoring offense (14-4, 4-2) in check for much of the contest.
“We handled it and didn't have enough strength to hold on,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said.
Fans easily broke through the thin yellow ropes to rush onto the court and celebrate the latest highlight of an amazing season. It should cost South Carolina a $100,000 fine from the SEC per league policy, but no one was worried about that at this point.
“It's never happened” before, Gamecocks senior forward Josh Gray said. “That was a great experience.”
It is the third consecutive loss in South Carolina for the Wildcats (14-4, 4-2) and the fourth in their last seven series meetings.
It sure didn't look like the Wildcats were in trouble in this one. Kentucky made five straight shots en route to a 21-16 lead midway through the first period.
But South Carolina and its SEC-leading defense stepped in after that to close the period on a 17-4 run.
The Wildcats missed nine of their final 10 shots of the period and were held to their lowest-scoring half of the season.
Antonio Reeves, Kentucky's leading scorer at 19.6 points per game, overcame a 1-for-7 first half with seven points shortly after halftime, and the Wildcats were within 40-38 with 15:04 left. .
But the Gamecocks took off again with a 22-6 run to open an 18-point lead with less than eight minutes left.
Kentucky couldn't get within single digits the rest of the way.
The sold-out crowd (Colonial Life Arena seats 18,000) was encouraged to wear black. Fans, including football coach Shane Beamer, whooped and hollered as time ticked down to victory.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this article.
