Five things we learned from South Carolina's 13th-straight loss at LSU

This always felt like the one game South Carolina could win. Granted, the Gamecocks were going to have to go on the road, which is never easy in the SEC, but they looked to be a good matchup against a scuffling LSU team.

These were the two worst teams in the conference standings pinned up against each other. Something had to give. But the struggles continued for South Carolina in an 81-67 loss in Baton Rouge on Tuesday.

The Gamecocks (10-16, 0-13 SEC) have now lost 13 consecutive games, with their last win coming on Dec. 30, 2024.

Here are five things we learned from watching the way South Carolina performed on Tuesday.

LSU couldn’t seem to miss

It’s always going to be tougher to beat a team when they are hitting almost every shot they take — at least that’s what it felt like in the first half. LSU went 16-for-28 (57.1 percent) from the field and 6-for-11 from three-point range. This helped the Tigers take a double-digit point lead, which they were able to hang on to for most of the night.

In the second half, LSU wasn’t nearly as impressive, only shooting 44.1 percent. But it knocked down seven more three-pointers to finish with 13 in the game. It’s interesting because the Tigers are a bottom-three team in the SEC in three-point shooting. In this game though, it just happened to be their night where they made a lot of tough shots.

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Another tough night for Pringle

It’s been a tough season for Nick Pringle. There is arguably no other player who has dealt with more in-game adversity than he has this year. And on Tuesday, the senior forward finished with six turnovers and six points.

There were multiple plays, especially in the first half, where Pringle tried to drive in the lane toward the basket. But he would get blocked by a swarm of defenders coming at him. For as big as he is, he doesn’t look to have a size advantage going up against other SEC big men this season.

Pringle has had some nice performances in his first season with the Gamecocks. But there have been some lows and this game was one of those.

Some of the turnovers were hard to explain

As Lamont Paris put it in his postgame interview on 107.5 The Game, some of the mistakes South Carolina makes are inexplicable. In the same breath, it’s hard to explain how some of those mistakes made happen. It’s just things you don’t always see every game.

Three plays stood out in another mistake-filled game. Morris Ugusuk forced a turnover on a steal and was in transition on South Carolina’s end of the floor. But he made a pass to Pringle that led to an immediate turnover. It probably wasn’t the right time to make a pass there, and Paris made that clear in voicing some of his frustrations.

The second came earlier in the game when Benjamin Bosmans-Verdonk had a lost ball turnover. It was odd because there wasn’t anyone guarding him. One second he had the ball in his two hands, the next it rolled out of his hands and went out of bounds. It resulted in an empty possession for the Gamecocks.

With eight seconds to go before halftime, South Carolina set up for an inbound pass. Ugusuk looked to throw a lob pass inside to Collin Murray-Boyles for a quick two points. However, his pass didn’t meet his intended target; instead, he went through the net for a wild shot. It didn’t count and subsequently became a turnover.

After taking better care of the ball recently, the Gamecocks racked up 18 turnovers on Tuesday, which played a role in this game going in LSU’s favor.

Can Thomas provide a complete performance from beginning to end?

Jamarii Thomas had a nice outing as he finished with 23 points on 9-of-16 shooting and 3-of-6 from behind the arc. But most of his scoring came in the second half where he had 19 points.

That’s kind of been the case with the senior guard this season. He hasn’t always been great at the start of games. When he comes out of the break though, something just seems to click for him. He’s a much better player as the game wears on.

So if he can find that consistency for a full 40 minutes, there’s no telling how impactful he could be in helping South Carolina end its losing streak.

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Is it bad luck or is it just their destiny?

There’s no denying South Carolina has been hit with some hard luck in some of its losses this year. The Gamecocks have lost six SEC games by five or fewer points. Then again, they’ve also lost all their other conference games by double digits. Even in the games that came down to the wire, there was always a reason why they couldn’t seal the deal to get a win.

With five games left in the regular season, it’s safe to say this year has been a wash. You can never say never since all it takes is one magical run in the SEC Tournament to win it and miraculously make it to March Madness. But more realistically, the bigger question is if South Carolina can win one game to avoid being the third SEC team to go 0-18.

Three of the final five games will come at Colonial Life Arena, which is a big plus. The other two are on the road at Missouri and Tennessee. KenPom now gives the Gamecocks a 14.4 percent chance to finish with a winless record. If they are going to avoid making history for all the wrong reasons, they will have to find a way to get it done at least once. And they will probably have to do it at home against Texas, Arkansas, and Georgia, which won’t be easy.

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