HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – South Carolina coach Frank Martin admits he dispenses coaching advice to Duane Notice a little more than his teammates.
Notice scored a career-high 27 points to lead South Carolina to a 77-59 win over cold-shooting Marshall on Monday night.
Notice bettered his previous career high of 23 points set against Auburn last March.
“I told him in one of the last timeouts I probably coach him harder than anyone on our team, and he continues to step up to the challenges,” Martin said. “When you go on the road, you find out a lot about your players, because they are not in the confines of your own gym and it’s not natural court. It’s kind of tilted to one side and you find out who is ready to go for you.
“Obviously Duane did that for us today. Real proud of him.”
Laimonas Chatkevicius added 15 points for the Gamecocks (4-3). Justin McKie scored 12 and Sindarius Thornwell had 10 points and 10 rebounds.
South Carolina built a big early lead and didn’t let Marshall (3-4) get closer than 15 points in the second half.
It marked the largest margin of victory for South Carolina on the road since a 26-point win at Princeton in 2008.
“Defensively, I thought we played hard,” Martin said. “I didn’t think we played real clean offensively.”
Marshall tied its lowest scoring output of the season set in its previous game against Cleveland State. The Thundering Herd lost their fourth straight game under new coach Dan D’Antoni.
Ryan Taylor led the Thundering Herd with 11 points and Austin Loop scored 10.
The Thundering Herd took their only lead in the game’s opening minutes before the Gamecocks scored 13 unanswered points. Thornwell’s layup put South Carolina head 15-3 less than 6 minutes into the game.
South Carolina blew the game open with a 20-7 run late in the first half and led 39-20 at halftime, holding the Thundering to 5-of-29 shooting.
Marshall made just 5-of-26 3-pointers and 29 percent overall (16-of-56).
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TIP-INS
South Carolina: The Gamecocks were playing their first game on an opponent’s home court this season. They hadn’t visited Huntington since 1980.
Marshall: The Thundering Herd outrebounded South Carolina 43-39. But Taylor, who averages 10 rebounds per game, was limited to three.
HOT AND COLD
Notice, Chatkevicius and McKie combined to shoot 22-of-35 from the floor. Their teammates went of 8-of-28.
PAINT POWER
The Gamecocks outscored Marshall 41-20 in the paint.
UP NEXT
South Carolina: Plays the first of four straight home games to finish the month of December on Saturday against Oklahoma State.
Marshall: Plays at home against Penn State on Saturday.
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