Five things we learned from South Carolina's tough loss to Auburn

The script was there. South Carolina was putting together a great story. The last page was in its hands with a chance to do the unthinkable.

The Gamecocks, who had lost their first two SEC games by a combined 55 points, were on the verge of taking down No. 2 Auburn on Saturday. However, after some missed free throws and a scoring drought at the end of the game, they came up just short of a massive upset, falling 66-63 to the Tigers.

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

This team is so much better when CMB is at his best

Collin Murray-Boyles was only going to stay down for so long. After two rough games for him against SEC competition, the sophomore forward was back to his old self with a great showing against the Tigers.

He finished with a game-high 25 points on 10-of-18 shooting, along with seven rebounds and two assists. In those games where he struggled, he felt he wasn’t being himself or playing as aggressive as he would’ve liked.

But right away, it looked like Murray-Boyles was the aggressor and nobody was going to stand in his way. When he plays like that, he’s usually at his best. And that’s exactly what South Carolina needs from him. It’s no coincidence that the Gamecocks were in the game the whole way through with their top player doing his thing.

The front court in general was solid for South Carolina on Saturday. Nick Pringle finished with a double-double as he went for 12 points and 10 rebounds. Even Benjamin Bosmans-Verdonk, who played 10 minutes, had a big-time block in the second half.

Not that far off

For as rough as those last two games were, this one was most definitely a huge step in the right direction. The fact that the Gamecocks, who lost by 35 points to Mississippi State a week ago, was able to go toe to toe with the best team in the country says a lot. Yeah, they still lost, but that’s what progress looks like.

The good news is the hardest part of the schedule is out of the way now. Auburn and Alabama are currently the two best teams in the conference, and South Carolina won’t have to play either again in the regular season. Granted, there won’t be an “easy” portion of the schedule, not with how good the SEC is this year. But it helps these tougher games are over with.

It’ll be interesting to see how the team responds going into a two-game road trip this upcoming week. The Gamecocks will head to Vanderbilt on Wednesday and Oklahoma on Saturday. With the way they played against Auburn, they should be feeling better about their odds in these next two games. However, they’re going to have to play at that type of level, if not better, to come away victorious in either matchup.

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Have to finish better

While this was certainly a better performance, South Carolina didn’t have the strongest ending to this game. It’s partially why it ended up losing.

With only 23 second-half points, the offense went through a scoring drought in the final 5:18 of the game. A lot of credit needs to be given to Auburn’s defense for making the necessary adjustments after halftime. It’s hard to win games when you’re not scoring at all down the stretch.

Luckily, the Tigers weren’t doing a whole lot of scoring either in the final minutes. The Gamecocks only trailed by one with nine seconds to go in regulation and had a chance to either tie or take the lead. But Nick Pringle, who went to the line to shoot two free throws, missed both and blew a golden opportunity.

For the game, South Carolina went 9-for-16 (56.3 percent) at the free throw line. In a battle that came down to the final possession, it would’ve really helped if it had made some of those free throws.

Arden Conyers has a chance to be really good

With the Gamecocks down two starters, Arden Conyers, who hadn’t seen much floor time before this week, ended up playing a career-high 31 minutes on Saturday. He seemed to struggle against Alabama earlier in the week, but he looked much more comfortable and built for the moment versus Auburn.

The redshirt freshman guard finished with 13 points on 4-of-10 shooting, including 3-for-6 from behind the arc. He knocked down a pair of clutch three-pointers in the second half, both of which gave South Carolina the lead at different points.

Conyers is going to benefit greatly from these experiences as he gets his feet wet at the college level. Keep in mind, he didn’t play at all for South Carolina last season in his freshman year. So these games he’s playing in now are some of his first. It’s good to see him taking advantage of the opportunity he has in front of him, which will lead to more playing time.

Playing aggressive and physical works

Despite coming up short in this game, head coach Lamont Paris seemed to be very pleased with the effort his team gave. There’s no question South Carolina played with the right amount of physicality and aggressiveness, which helped it stay in the fight.

The Gamecocks won the rebound battle over Auburn 37-33 and had 15 second-chance points as a result of some of those big rebounds. They did a great job of crashing to the boards and making life tough on the Tigers at times.

This is exactly how they need to play in every game this season. They seem to be a lot better as a group when they play that style of basketball. The wins can definitely come if that continues moving forward.

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