South Carolina falls in second half to Florida Gators, sets new "record" for consecutive SEC losses

South Carolina walked into the O’Connell Center as a pretty heavy underdog to the Florida Gators on Saturday. Through the first half, it seemed like those prognostications might have been misguided. Unfortunately for Lamont Paris’ team, the game of basketball is made up of two halves. Like most of the team’s road games this season, the final scoring margin wasn’t pretty for the traveling Gamecocks.

Florida went on to win by a score of 88-67.

South Carolina (10-15, 0-12 SEC) now has set a new program record for consecutive SEC losses. “Beating” the mark set in the team’s first year in the conference (1991-1992), the Gamecocks’ 12-game losing streak is the worst in the conference since last year’s Missouri team went winless at 0-18.

Paris, like everyone involved with the program, is frustrated with that record. “I hate the ‘oh, we were close.’ Nah, forget that. We should have beat Florida the first time we played them…We’ve been in really good situations against really good teams multiple times. We just haven’t been able to get over the hump.”

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How it happened

The Gamecocks and Gators got off to a fast start. Florida took an early lead, but a 17-3 run from the Gamecocks got them back in it. Through the first 10 minutes of the 1st half, both teams were shooting 70% from the floor. The scoring pace eventually slowed down a bit as the SEC rivals combined to go 1-14 for a stretch late in the half. Even so, the opening 20 minutes still saw the two teams combine to score 80 points.

Florida, as one of the top offensive teams in the country, is used to playing high-scoring games. South Carolina, though, had to play a bit outside of its comfort zone to keep up. It wasn’t always pretty, but the Gamecocks did enough to head into halftime in a two-possession game.

The “closeness” of the game didn’t last.

It was a physical contest with inconsistent officiating. The teams’ effectiveness on the perimeter was the separator, however. The Gamecocks made their first three outside jumpers but only made one more for the rest of the game. Florida, though, knocked down 50% of their 3-point shots, going 14-for-28.

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A strong 1st half effort saw the Gamecocks trailing by four points at halftime. However, Florida hit two quick 3-pointers to start the 2nd half. South Carolina didn’t make a shot over the half’s first four minutes. After a few buckets, the ‘Cocks then went on another three-minute scoring drought. The offensive struggles proved to be too much to overcome.

The defense wasn’t great after the intermission, either. After the game, Paris lamented that his team has to figure out how to “sustain what we’re doing defensively.” Though the Gamecock didn’t string together many stops all night, the run early in the 2nd half was the worst.

That run, paired with the Gamecocks’ anemic scoring output, caused the score to quickly get away from Lamont Paris’ team. Florida went up by 15, and then after a short Carolina run, the Gators responded even faster to go up by 21. Denzel Aberdeen and Thomas Haugh both set a new career-high for UF, scoring 22 and 20 points, respectively.

After USC scored 25 points in the first 10 minutes of the game, the Gamecocks scored 25 more points over the next 22 minutes. In contrast, Florida had 25-point scoring stretches that took 10 minutes in the 1st half and just nine minutes in the 2nd.

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Two observations

The perimeter remains unforgiving–South Carolina hasn’t gotten the production it has needed this season on the perimeter. Guard play, as a whole, hasn’t been great, and none of the Gamecock forwards have provided much of anything as stretch shooters, either. On Saturday, junior wing Zach Davis turned the ball over five times, and the entire team had just seven assists on the night. Perimeter defense was horrible most of the night as Florida shot 60% from the field and 50% from the 3-point line.

Said Paris about his team’s turnovers early: “There’s a component of performance in this game. We did some good things in the first half, that’s even with nine turnovers…the whole complexion of that half is different if you can cut that down to three or four.”

South Carolina continues to fight but can’t play a complete game–It’s not a small deal that Lamont Paris still has his team playing hard considering the way this season has gone. For the first half, the Gamecocks outplayed the Gators but still trailed by four at the break. After halftime, Florida couldn’t miss, and despite Carolina’s continued effort, the game quickly moved out of reach. The effort wasn’t quite as strong the rest of the way, but the deficit was too large to make it matter. South Carolina hasn’t played a full 40 minutes of solid basketball in a long time.

“In the second half…we were out of rhythm,” the Gamecock headman reflected. “We had some critical [misses] when we were at the basket and weren’t able to finish or make a play. And they were also scoring. We were taking the ball out of the net every single time. It’s hard to get anything going that way.”

Key stat

3-for-3 and 4-for-12–South Carolina started off making their first three shots from the perimeter. However, the Gamecocks couldn’t earn many more good looks from outside the rest of the way. By the time the game ended, USC had gone 4-12 from outside. On the other end, Florida shot the lights out, going 14-for-28.

22 and 20–Both Thomas Haugh and Denzel Aberdeen set career-high scoring marks on Saturday night. The two bench players started in place of Alex Condon and Alijah Martin (Condon was out, and Martin was in his first game back from injury). The surprising dynamic duo went off for 22 points (Aberdeen) and 20 points (Haugh).

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Turning point

Florida came out of the halftime break hot. The Gators went on a 12-1 run to start the second period. The Gamecocks responded, though, with six points in a row. Florida was unbothered by the counterpunch. Todd Golden’s team dropped a 12-0 run on South Carolina to put the game out of reach. From there, the game was never in doubt.

Up next

South Carolina will be on the road again for their next game. The Gamecocks will travel to Baton Rouge, Louisiana for a date with the LSU Tigers. Tip-off is at 9:00 p.m. on SEC Network.

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