Florida’s leading scorer and rebounder, forward Kerry Blackshear Jr., found himself on the bench for the majority of the night after some early foul trouble.
It was not ideal for a conference game on the road.
And yet, Florida has now won back-to-back SEC games and is on a three-game win streak after an 81-68 victory over South Carolina on Tuesday in Columbia, South Carolina.
Blackshear, who’s averaging 14.9 points and nine rebounds a game, only played two minutes in the first half. Coach Mike White had to find some offense that wasn’t manufactured by his graduate transfer from Virginia Tech in order to get his 200th career win as a coach.
Forward Keyontae Johnson and guard Andrew Nembhard carried the load with 10 and nine points, respectively, in the first half of action to compensate for Blackshear’s foul trouble.
Both sophomores each played 18 minutes in the first half of action, but perhaps the biggest contribution of the half came from forward Omar Payne who got his hands dirty with eight rebounds — four of them coming on the offensive glass.
“He’s got elite length, his motor has improved, he’s coming into his own a little as an offensive rebounder,” White said at halftime in an interview with ESPNU.
Freshman guard Scottie Lewis also had nine points in the first half despite only averaging 8.7 points on the season.
The Gamecocks (8-6, 0-1) were coming off a devastating 63-56 loss to Stetson — a team that was only 6-9 — before opening SEC play against Florida (10-4, 2-0), and it was expected that the Gamecocks would come out with a chip on their shoulder.
All they found was inconsistent play and 14 turnovers.
Defense was hard to come by for the Gamecocks at times, and Florida’s aggression in the paint and ball movement was more than enough to win.
Nembhard put on a masterful performance to close out the game —both scoring and passing — and ended with a 21-point and 10-assist double-double. The floor general also had three steals and a block in his 37 minutes of action.
White has made a point to not let his players listen to outside noise or find any reason to be overconfident. He made sure that his players — especially his freshmen —knew what it was going to be like to play a South Carolina team after a loss like it had just suffered.
“Our freshmen have no idea what they’ll be walking into,” White said in a release before the game.
He was partially right.
It’s hard to have imagined freshmen Lewis and Payne would have such solid performances.
Lewis contributed 15 points and nine rebounds while Payne’s first half hustle kept multiple possessions alive.
Florida’s weapons go beyond its star player in Blackshear, and its depth was on display on the road.
Follow Joseph on Twitter @JSalvadorSports and contact him at jsalvador@alligator.org
