South Carolina’s bonkers 2nd half against Duke deserves appreciation

There’s a distinct rhythm to many near-upsets you see in the NCAA tournament. You saw it in UNC’s comeback against Arkansas and Oregon’s win over Rhode Island on Sunday.

The underdog hangs with the big boy and maybe opens up a nice lead that seems comfortable, but late in the game inexplicably stops putting the ball in the basket and lets the higher-seeded team back in the game. Rhode Island didn’t make a field goal in the final two minutes of their loss, and Arkansas didn’t score in the final 3:30.

Whether it’s succumbing to the pressure of the moment, poor strategy from the coach, the opponent’s defense ratcheting up, or a mix of all three, countless upsets have been lost to the sands of time because teams go on dry spells.

So when I saw this midway through the second half of South Carolina’s upset win over Duke ...

... I tweeted this:

During the first half of the win over Duke, the Gamecocks were 3 for 17 from three-point land and 7 for 35 from the field. Only SEC Player of the Year Sindarius Thornwell hit more than one shot for the Gamecocks. Yet they were only down by seven points to a team that so many penciled into their Final Fours.

Then, South Carolina did this in the second half.

Notice the three-pointers column — only four made and five attempted. The Gamecocks scored 65 second half points with 26 coming in the paint and 10 coming from the fast break. They completely went away from the three-pointer and it worked to perfection. They also hit free throws, which cannot be ignored.

Forgive me for thinking that the torrid pace set earlier in the second half was going to slow down at some point late in the game, because that second half was a minor basketball miracle.

Besides not scoring from the field, there’s another thing that can work against Davids against Goliaths: foul shots. The foul shot disparity was 25-8 in favor of UNC against Arkansas. The Hogs went to the charity stripe four times in each half, and not getting the gimmes was costly. The Rams only had two free throw attempts in the second half and six in the first. Oregon shot 27 times from the line in that game. Essentially, there were plenty of free points the Rams and Razorbacks had no chance at getting.

South Carolina didn’t have that to worry about that. The Gamecocks went to the line 23 times in the second half as opposed to just nine times in the first half. They also hit the shots, going 21 for 23 from the charity stripe. They kept attacking instead of recoiling like most Davids.

By executing their game plan, they didn’t fall into typical traps for a would-be upsetter. Rather than live and die by the three ball, they made higher-percentage shots and swung the pressure onto Duke to keep up.

In contrast, the Blue Devils became the team that relied on the three-pointer, going 5 for 9 in the second half and shooting 36 field goals in total. That was a marked uptick from the eight threes they attempted in the first half. Duke doesn’t have the foul shot excuse either — they went 18-19 in the second half and 27-19 for the whole game. They, and not South Carolina, played like underdogs.

That’s why it was the favored Devils that cracked and the underdog Gamecocks heading to the Sweet 16.