Akron 68, South Carolina 63: Noah Robotham scored 16 points and Deji Ibitayo added 15 off the bench as the Zips edged the Gamecocks in the third-place game of the Charleston Classic.

Kwan Cheatham Jr. poured in 13 points as Akron (3-1) defeated two power-conference opponents in the same season for the first time in school history after knocking off USC in opening-round action Thursday. The Zips overcame a 4-of-20 effort beyond the arc by going 22-of-27 at the foul line.

Sindarius Thornwell led South Carolina (2-3) with 13 points and combined with Duane Notice, who contributed a season-high 12, for the only two 3-pointers the Gamecocks could muster on 11 attempts. Laimonas Chatkevicius rounded out the double-digit scorers for South Carolina with 11 while Demetrius Henry grabbed a game-high nine boards.

Akron took its biggest first-half lead on a bucket by Ibitayo with 2:41 left, but layups from Marcus Stroman and Notice before the break and a free throw from Thornwell in the opening minutes of the second half narrowed the gap to 30-28. Pat Forsythe bookended a 14-4 surge over a three-minute span to stretch the Zips’ margin to 12 before a dunk from Tyrone Johnson capped an 18-7 spurt to cut the Gamecocks’ deficit to one.

Chatkevicius tied it at 55 with a free throw and added a jumper with just under 4 1/2 minutes left to bring South Carolina within one, but Akron refused to give up the lead as Reggie McAdams and Robotham combined for three free throws. Thornwell knocked down a jumper to end a near four-minute field-goal drought to make it 63-60 with 35 seconds to go and drilled a triple with 10 seconds remaining, but Cheatham hit a pair of free throws to end it.

GAME NOTEBOOK: After having never met before last Christmas, Sunday marked the third time in less than a year these programs faced each other. … South Carolina won the rebounding battle 45-32, but shot 11-of-20 from the foul line. … The Zips improved to 4-6 all-time against the SEC.