South Carolina Gamecocks v. North Carolina A&T Aggies - Final Score, Recap, and Box

We established before the game that South Carolina was much, much better than North Carolina A&T.  It didn't take long for that to show itself at the Colonial Life Arena on Tuesday night.

The Gamecocks scored the first eight points of the evening and raced out to a 21-6 lead in the first eight minutes before stretching their advantage to 47-16 at the half, before cruising to an easy 91-54 victory.  Given how quickly Carolina jumped out ahead of the Aggies, the game was never in doubt.

The biggest story of the evening was that Shamiek Sheppard decided to forego a redshirt season and made his first appearance of the year after recovering from a knee injury sustained this summer.  He'll look to find a role on this squad in their last 19 regular season games, although with a solid nine-man rotation in place, playing time may be more difficult to come by than it appeared when he enrolled.

Still, it's what passed for news on a night where Carolina dominated from beginning to end.

As for individual players, the story of the night was mostly on defense, as the offense saw contributions from everyone in roughly similar proportions.  Six Gamecocks scored double-digit points, led by Mindaugas Kacinas, who had a perfect night of shooting, going 5-5 from the field and 6-6 at the line for 16 points.  Marcus Stroman didn't join the double-digit points club, but he did hand out a team-high seven assists against just two turnovers.

All in all, it was what you wanted from a game like tonight - everyone got to play, everyone played well, no one got hurt, and the reserves saw some minutes.  For the last time this season, Carolina went in a heavy favorite and put together a comprehensive victory.

Starting Saturday, there's no more games like this one.  In Brooklyn, against Iowa State, the Gamecocks get another chance to bolster what's starting to look like a possible NCAA Tournament resume.