Photos: South Carolina Squashed

South Carolina saw multiple opportunities slip through its fingers as Ole Miss was able to pull away from the Gamecocks 70-58.

GG Jackson led the Gamecocks with 15 points, seven rebounds and three assists in a losing effort.

View photos from the Gamecock loss below.

The losses keep mounting up for South Carolina. 

Days after a 41-point blowout at home to Texas A&M, the Gamecocks lost by 12 points to an Ole Miss team that had lost six straight. 

The 70-58 loss was the team’s fourth in SEC play and third by at least 10 points and drops South Carolina to 0-3 at home in league play. 

How it happened

Like South Carolina (8-10, 1-4 SEC) has in its last two home games, the Gamecocks fell behind early. Ole Miss jumped out to a quick eight-point lead while the Gamecocks chiseled that down thanks to some better defense.

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The game was largely a three-point for most of the first half before South Carolina started to stagnate offensively. The Gamecocks went through a very long stretch without much offense, including multiple minutes-long scoreless droughts where the Rebels ballooned their lead to 10 at the half. 

The Gamecocks didn’t get much from their big three in the first half with Meechie Johnson, GG Jackson and Hayden Brown combining for just six points on 3-for-15 shooting and no threes made. 

But South Carolina came out much better in the second half, starting things with a 6-0 run with seven of the first nine points scored by either Brown or Johnson, largely aided by open-court opportunities. 

Ole Miss would answer though, ripping off a 10-0 run aided by an over three-minute long South Carolina scoreless drought. The Gamecocks, after starting the half as crisp as possible, missed four straight shots with a turnover mixed in as well. 

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South Carolina kept things around that 10-point mark for a good chunk of the second half but could never truly make a run. The Gamecocks turned the ball over nine times and shot just 36.7 percent from the field and 6-for-24 from three.

Ole Miss, though, came in as one of the worst three-point shooting teams in the country and shot 10-for-24 (41.7 percent).

Only two Gamecocks finished in double figures while it was a struggle for Johnson, who finished with five points on 2-for-10 shooting and made just one of his seven threes.

Two observations

GG Jackson has to find ways to score the ball–There are going to be nights where South Carolina’s potential lottery pick has an off-night shooting early, but he has to find ways to score outside of that. Jackson finished with a team-high 15 points on 5-for-19 shooting and made just two of his six threes.

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When shots aren’t falling, he has to find ways to get to the line and didn’t Tuesday. He finished with zero free throw attempts. Jackson found ways to impact the score sheet outside of hitting shots–seven boards and three assists to one turnover–but the Gamecocks have to have points from him, too. Most of his points game with aggressive play, but most came once the game was in hand.

Rebounding is going to need immense fixing–South Carolina was one of the better offensive rebounding teams in the country through non-conference play and has put up back-to-back clunkers on the glass. The Gamecocks were out-rebounded again Tuesday 42-31 and only rebounded five of their 38 misses. South Carolina has no answer in the post regardless of who’s in, and it showed. Ole Miss had seven offensive boards on 27 misses. 

Key stat

9 to 18–South Carolina’s offense largely stagnated and the Gamecocks struggled to move the ball and get quality looks. They finished with nine assists on 22 makes while Ole Miss assisted on 18 of its 23 made field goals. Neither offense set the world on fire Tuesday, but the more efficient one moved the ball better. 

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Turning point

With about five minutes to go, Hayden Brown–back from a thigh bruise injury–made a decisive, aggressive move to the basket and finished. The bucket cut the deficit to just single digits, but Ole Miss would come right now and drill a three seconds later. The Rebels would be up double-digits the rest of the way. 

Up next

South Carolina’s three-game homestand ends Saturday with the Gamecocks hosting Auburn at 3:30 p.m. on the SEC Network. Shane Beamer and the Gamecock football team will be honored at halftime of the game.