Led by Juan Fernandez’s 20 points and seven rebounds in just 18 minutes of playing time, South Carolina won its season opener 81-55 against Stetson on Tuesday night in Columbia, S.C.
Camden Heide scored 13 points and added two blocks and two steals in his debut for South Carolina (1-0). Davion Hannah had 11 points and career highs of nine rebounds and four assists off the bench.
Jakub Necas and Aleksas Bieliauskas scored 11 and 10 points for the Gamecocks, respectively.
Collin Kuhl led Stetson (0-2) in scoring with 17 points, seven rebounds and two steals one night after scoring 20 points against Clemson in their season opener. Roman Miller scored 11 points off the bench. Starting guard Thiago Sucatzky was forced into a career-high six turnovers by the South Carolina defense.
South Carolina outshot Stetson 50.8% to 43.2% and lost only five turnovers.
Kuhl scored five early points to help the Hatters take a 7-5 lead three minutes into the game, but Stetson never led again.
South Carolina went on a 15-3 run in the first half to build a 17-point lead with 4:30 to go. Necas provided the final seven consecutive points on two free throws, a triple and a layup.
Stetson was able to get the lead down to 15 prior to intermission, but a Hugo Lopez layup off of an offensive rebound pushed the lead back to 17 at halftime, 42-25.
After halftime, South Carolina held Stetson scoreless from the 12:50 mark of the second half until 6:03. During that time, the Gamecocks went on an extended 15-0 run that grew their lead to 72-39.
In his first game with South Carolina following a transfer from George Mason, Kory Mincy had five points, three rebounds, five assists and three steals. Heide was at Texas last year and Hannah transferred from Alabama.