Vanderbilt hung around with No. 15 South Carolina for awhile on Saturday, but the 21-3 team on the floor showed why they're 21-3 as the Gamecocks rolled to a 75-60 win over the Commodores in former Vanderbilt forward Myles Stute's first matchup with his former team.
The Commodores were outscored 47-28 in the second half as they moved to 6-17 overall and 1-9 in league play.
"I thought the game got away from us a little bit," Vanderbilt coach Jerry Stackhouse said. "It just wasn't in the cards today."
Vanderbilt held the lead at halftime for just the third time this season in league play.
The Commodores led 32-28 behind seven points each from Ezra Manjon and Tyrin Lawrence as well as six from Evan Taylor.
That didn't last, though.
"You could just tell the youth in our team," Stackhouse said. "They were really excited, almost too excited in the first half. You just gotta understand there's two halves of it and that's where I was telling Colin (Smith) 'man, make sure to just calm them down a little bit.'"
"When you haven't had a lot of success you tend to get the cart before the horse a little bit."
South Carolina regained the lead on a Collin Murray-Boyles layup at the 19:11 mark of the second half and the rest was history.
Murray-Boyles went for a career-high 31 points as South Carolina went on a 14-4 run to open the half.
"He was a man among boys," Stackhouse said of the freshman forward.
The Gamecocks led by as much as 17 as they rolled to their 21st win of the season in Colombia.
This one wasn't within double digits after the 10:45 mark of the second half.
Three quick takes:
Saturday was a tale of two halves
The first half of Saturday's game was what Vanderbilt needed it to be. The Commodores slowed it down, took care of the ball and never let South Carolina get into any semblance of a rhythm.
That quickly changed in the second half of Saturday's game, though.
"We were a step slow there in the second half," Stackhouse said.
South Carolina made its first six field goals of the half, including three makes from beyond the arc. The Gamecocks got out to a 46-38 lead after outscoring Vanderbilt 18-6 to open the half.
That margin then went to 30-12 as Lamont Paris' team took a 58-44 lead.
When all was said and done, South Carolina outscored Vanderbilt by 19 after the break on Saturday and shot 56.3% from the field in the final 20 minutes.
That was a contrast to the 46.2% it shot in the first half. South Carolina also went just 1-for-11 from 3-point range in the second half, but shot 8-for-18 from beyond the arc in the second half.
Checking in on Myles Stute
Saturday marked Stute's first matchup with Vanderbilt since departing from the program prior to Vanderbilt's NIT run last season.
Stute has since found a role as a a consistent piece on a 20-3 South Carolina team.
The former Vanderbilt forward is averaging 9.7 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game while shooting 44.4% from the field as well as 42.2% from 3-point range. 4.5 of Stute's 7.6 shots attempted per game have come from beyond the arc.
Stute has still been a bit streaky, though. The South Carolina wing has alternated double-figure scoring games and games with five points or less in the past six outings. Two of those outings were scoreless. Stute combined to shoot 7-for-8 from beyond the arc against Tennessee and Ole Miss, though.
The 6-foot-6 senior hasn't drastically improved since leaving West End but seems to be in a situation where he fits and can make an impact for an NCAA Tournament team.
The former Vanderbilt wing finished Saturday with eight points while shooting 3-for-10 from the field and 1-for-7 from 3-point range.
Vanderbilt's offense was better this week, but it can't win with defense like its had
"I can't remember when South Carolina took a bad shot or a contested shot," ESPN color commentator Pat Bradley said midway through the second half.
That about summed things up as Paris' team put up 75 points on the afternoon, assisted each other 21 times and turned it over just seven times.
It was easy to see the difference between the two teams in the frontcourt.
South Carolina's starting frontcourt outscored Vanderbilt's 49-19 on the afternoon and shot 20-for-30 from the field.
"The big guys hurt us today," Stackhouse said.
Vanderbilt has seemed to have a better flow to its offense this week while shooting 41.8% from the field on the week and 48.1% from the field as well as 33.3% from 3-point range on Saturday.
South Carolina and Kentucky's 184 combined points did Vanderbilt in this week, though.
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