Senior forward scores 17 points to lead USC's balanced scoring effort

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Charleston Classic 2009

South Carolina defeated La Salle, 78-68, during a first-round game Thursday night in the Charleston Classic basketball tournament at the College of Charleston.

South Carolina coach Darrin Horn credited his bench for its help in taking down La Salle on Thursday night.

Its 30 points were welcome, sure. But one of his starters was pretty good, too.

Aided by senior Dominique Archie's 12 second-half points, the Gamecocks turned a two-point halftime lead into an easy 78-68 victory against a tough-minded team from Philadelphia in the first round of the Charleston Classic at Carolina First Arena.

'We just kept digging and kept playing and made a run,' Horn said. 'I think this is a good basketball team we beat tonight.'

La Salle senior point guard Rodney Green led all scorers with 23. Archie finished with 17 points and seven rebounds, both team highs.

South Carolina (3-0) will play South Florida (3-0) at 9:30 tonight.

The Bulls got past scrappy Davidson, 65-58, earlier in the night

Thursday. They feature a 6-10 test in Maryland transfer Augustus Gilchrist, who had 19 second-half points and 21 in the win.

'We know they're an athletic team,' Horn said. 'They've got some size and a good inside game.'

As expected, La Salle gave the Gamecocks all they wanted early on.

Aaric Murray, a 6-10 freshman, was particularly daunting. But he got into foul trouble and wasn't part of the game during some of USC's most effective play at the end of the first and beginning of the second half.

The Gamecocks trailed 30-22 with five minutes left in the first half, but they started to come around at that juncture.

Brandis Raley-Ross had seven of his 10 first-half points as USC outscored the Explorers (1-1) 16-6 to end the half. Raley-Ross' long, NBA-range 3-pointer with 45 seconds left gave South Carolina its first lead of the night, at 38-36.

The Gamecocks, thanks to Archie, didn't look back from there.

The fifth-year player scored the first four points of the half, both off Explorers turnovers, to put USC ahead 42-36 and force a La Salle timeout. Both shots were right at the basket.

'It's four points. It shouldn't make that big of a difference,' La Salle coach John Giannini said, 'but the game felt different quickly.'

And it continued to feel that way.

Archie got to the rim pretty much whenever he wanted in the second half — especially once the Explorers got away from their zone defense because of Murray's foul issues.

'We struggled to guard him,' Giannini said.

After making one of seven shots in the first half, mostly stymied by La Salle's zone,

Archie hit 6 of 7 in the second.

'It opened up gaps for everybody,' Archie said of the porous Explorers half-court defense.

Raley wasn't to be forgotten, either.

The pair combined for 12 of the first 18 points of the second half, including two Raley-Ross 3-pointers in the midst of a 12-1 run that really allowed South Carolina to pull away.

By the end of it — with a physical post-up move by Austin Steed that brought the emotional USC bench to its feet — the Gamecocks had a comfy 58-41 lead.

Raley-Ross, the SEC's reigning Sixth Man of the Year, had 16 of those 30 bench points. Steed added six, and so did newcomer Johndre Jefferson.

Those buckets were big in making up for forward Sam Muldrow, who didn't score and was saddled with foul trouble in only 15 minutes.

Fellow post Mike Holmes helped, also, with 15 points — including some really bruising moves that led to buckets.

Devan Downey was quiet, with 10 points. But he did enough in critical times, to control tempo and encourage emotion.

'We're learning that we're not so dependent on one guy having to be great,' Horn said. 'This was a total team effort.'

Reach Travis Haney at thaney@postandcourier.com and check out the South Carolina blog at www.postandcourier.com/blogsgamecocks.