COLUMBIA, S.C. _ Frank Martin was not happy at halftime.
South Carolina knew better than to make him feel that way after the final buzzer.
A 13-1 run out of the locker room propelled the No. 20 Gamecocks to a 68-50 win over Vermont on Thursday, improving USC to 7-0. Once again, USC's defense was marvelous, Catamounts leading scorer Payton Henson held to four points and the Cats committing 18 turnovers, but all wasn't rosy.
Martin didn't like the lackadaisical effort early on. While he knew he'd get hard, steady efforts from his upperclassmen, the youngsters needed to step up.
Then again, the reason he trusts his upperclassmen so much is for games like Thursday's. The young ones heard the halftime message and put Vermont (6-3) away with a second-half barrage.
"I'm glad this game's over with. This game's had me uptight for three days," Martin said. "I just had a feeling, because of the success the last couple of games against name teams, we weren't going to be as clean as we needed to be."
USC wasn't, with nine first-half turnovers, several in the game's first five minutes. But Chris Silva scored seven straight points after Vermont made it a 24-21 game and P.J. Dozier scored a career-high 21, punctuating it with an alley-oop dunk.
The Gamecocks held Vermont to nine points for the first 14 minutes of the second half before the Catamounts were able to regroup. They were too far gone by that point, though, as USC had four in double figures and Sindarius Thornwell had nine assists.
"I was just trying to find an open spot and knock shots down," said Silva, who was 5-for-6 from the floor and also had six rebounds and two blocked shots.
Martin has pointed out that the Gamecocks have been missing a lot of open shots, but the defense has overcome it. On Thursday, USC had 24 points off turnovers and smashed Vermont's zone to finish with a 46-18 paint advantage while shooting 46.8 percent.
The early effort wasn't good but the Gamecocks had the answers when they needed them. Silva is becoming a complete center instead of just a rim-protector while Dozier, finally able to stay on the court without turnovers or fouls, is blossoming into the star he was projected to be.
Through it all, the veterans are helping the newcomers adjust to and understand Martin's system. After a wake-up call during Thursday's first half, the hope is the lesson has been accepted.
"They knew I was mad, and they knew exactly why I was mad, and they came out and played hard," Martin said.
