By: Knox Buxton
On Saturday South Carolina played against Texas in an SEC matchup. South Carolina went into the game 0-13 in conference play and 10-16 overall. I thought South Carolina was going to get killed by Texas because of the way their season has gone so far. To be honest, the only reason I went to the game was to see Texas’s freshman star, Tre Johnson. Tre Johnson is a projected top 10 pick in this year’s NBA draft and the latest mock draft has him going at 6th overall. It is also always fun to watch Collin Murray-Boyles play for South Carolina and he is also a projected lottery pick in this year’s NBA draft. Murray-Boyles is projected to go at 13th in the latest 2025 NBA mock draft. Carolina got hot to start the game and came out and got a lead on Texas. Texas could not get anything going on offense because South Carolina was playing great defense to start the game. Jahmarii Thomas started off gaurding Tre Johnson and was doing a really good job on him. Texas’s offense runs through Tre Johnson so since they couldn’t get him going, it was looking good for South Carolina. Collin Murray-Boyles got off to a hot start for Carolina as he had a couple and one’s and altered texas’s shots at the rim. Carolina stayed hot and went into halftime up 40-22. Johnson had 9 points at the half and it seemed like no one else could score the ball for the longhorns. To start the second half it was more of the same, Carolina went up by twenty and the game seemed like it was just about over. With just under 10 minutes left in the game Texas started force feeding Tre Johnson and he got hot. To go along with johnson scoring the ball at will, Texas broke out a press which seemed to work on Carolina for a little while. It looked like Texas was about to make a comeback with around five minutes left to play but then South Carolina pulled away and won the game 84-69. I enjoyed watching South Carolina get their first win in conference play and seeing Collin Murray-Boyles go for 22 points and 10 rebounds. It was also fun to watch Tre Johnson score the ball at will and seeing Texas’s whole offense run through him. Johnson finished with 29 points and hit some tough shots. That game looked to me like Carolina’s best all around game in SEC play because they played hard defense and were scoring the ball better than they usually do. Even though this season has been pretty painful to watch for Carolina, I enjoyed watching them surprise Texas.
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