Five things we learned from South Carolina's loss to Tennessee in regular season finale

It’s been the story of South Carolina’s 2024-25 season. Close, but not enough.

The Gamecocks (12-19, 2-16 SEC) were in a tight-knit battle with No. 4 Tennessee in Knoxville on Saturday. But the Vols’ strong second-half shooting helped them outlast South Carolina in a 75-65 win to close out the regular season.

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

Put up a good fight

Having to go on the road to face a top-five team, the Gamecocks weren’t given much chance in this one. ESPN only gave them a 6.9 percent chance to win. But for a while on Saturday, they had as good of a shot as Tennessee to win.

After playing catch-up for most of the first half, South Carolina nabbed its first lead with 2:09 left before halftime. The Vols tied the game right before the break, but the Gamecocks held a one-point lead with under 15 minutes to go in the second half.

That would be the last time they would be in front, though, as Tennessee came back to life after an up-and-down first-half performance. Even when South Carolina fell behind by double digits, it still fought to try and keep the game close. It eventually cut the lead down to seven with under a minute to go, but free throws and a late dunk put the Vols ahead by 10 for good.

Chaz Lanier heating up in second half shifted momentum

South Carolina did a nice job of keeping Tennessee from blowing the game open in the first half when it couldn’t make any open shots that it took. Even though the Gamecocks weren’t shooting great, the Vols kept missing shots that could’ve put this game out of hand. Leading scorer Chaz Lanier only had three points at the break.

But after halftime, the senior guard got himself going with 20 points on 8-of-12 shooting and 2-of-4 from behind the arc to finish with 23 for the game. This came while Zakai Ziegler, Tennessee’s next leading scorer, only had one point in 25 minutes.

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Couldn’t keep up with Tennessee’s strong shooting day

Even with the Vols shooting 50 percent from the field, South Carolina still found itself in a tie game at halftime. But with Tennessee not slowing down the rest of the way, it eventually became tougher for the Gamecocks to keep up.

The Vols shot 58.6 percent in the second half, while the Gamecocks were at a 34.5 percent clip. As a whole, they went 20-of-57 from the floor (35.1 percent) and 8-of-36 from three-point range (22.2 percent).

South Carolina got off to a slow start in this game, going 1-of-14 from behind the arc. It had so many open looks that it kept missing on. And given how many three-pointers it missed, some of those early shots could’ve significantly closed the gap.

This is the Nick Pringle that South Carolina needs

With Collin Murray-Boyles being held to seven points and three rebounds, others had to step up to have a chance in this game. And they did, as Jamarii Thomas and Nick Pringle were the two standouts. Thomas finished with 20 points on 5-of-15 shooting. But Pringle was arguably the team’s best performer on Saturday.

Pringle had 16 points and 14 rebounds for his third double-double of the season. In most games, Murray-Boyles won’t play the way he did on Saturday. This was his first game since Jan. 8 where he was held to under 10 points. So, given that he should be better moving forward, getting a quality performance like this from Pringle is important. If he can play the way he did, and Murray-Boyles returns to form, they could cause some issues for other teams in this week’s SEC Tournament.

South Carolina’s first-round foe in SEC Tournament is official

During the game on Saturday, it was all but a lock who South Carolina’s first-round opponent in the SEC Tournament would be. By the end of the night, it became official. As the No. 16 seed, the Gamecocks will face No. 9-seeded Arkansas in Nashville on Wednesday.

It’s a rematch of when South Carolina dominated the Razorbacks in a 72-53 win at Colonial Life Arena back on March 1. It’s also another chance for Lamont Paris to remain unbeaten against John Calipari as he’s a perfect 3-0 when he faces him.

This will be the first game of the tournament and will tip off at 1 p.m. on SEC Network. The winner advances to face Ole Miss in the second round.

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