South Carolina falls to Indiana Hoosiers in tough road test

In the first out-of-conference road game against a non-Clemson opponent since 2019, South Carolina basketball traveled to Bloomington, Indiana for a huge showdown on Saturday. The Gamecocks and Hoosiers both fancy themselves as NCAA Tournament teams, and the early-season test was the biggest for both programs so far in the 2024-2025 campaign.

With two potential 1st-round NBA Draft picks facing off, it was Mackenzie Mgbako who led his team to victory. South Carolina basketball now owns a 2-2 record following the 87-71 defeat.

How it happened

In the early goings of the game, South Carolina appeared ready for a physical battle. The Gamecocks held Indiana scoreless for nearly three minutes. Collin Murray-Boyles and Nick Pringle were battling hard down low with the Hoosiers’ frontcourt. Indiana responded, however, with some quick offense as wings Mackenzie Mgbako and Myles Rice (a Columbia native) scored seven points in 90 seconds.

Three turnovers and a lack of movement on offense led to what became a 14-0 run. Rice and Mgbako scored 16 of Indiana’s first 18 points as the Gamecocks’ wing defense struggled and help defense from the post was non-existent. Forward Collin Murray-Boyles also picked up early fouls, and Zach Davis left the game with an injury (he would return).

From there, the Gamecocks gathered themselves. Morris Ugusuk and Myles Stute played well to get South Carolina back in the game. The defense locked in a bit, forcing six misses in a row. An Ugusuk 3-ball cut the lead to 20-17 with about 8:30 left in the half.

The Gamecocks had struggled to make outside jumpers through the first three games of the season. That trend seemed to reverse early as the Gamecocks made four 3-pointers in the first eleven-ish minutes of the game. By the end of the half, Lamont Paris’ team had seven, all by Ugusuk and Stute.

In the final minutes of the opening 20, South Carolina couldn’t string together any stops. On-ball defense wasn’t great, and even when Indiana missed shots, the Gamecocks gave up eight points on second-chance opportunities.

Morris Ugusuk did all he could to cover up his teammates’ struggles as he scored 14 points in the first half. Unfortunately for the Gamecocks, outside of Ugusuk and Myles Stute, there was no offense. Collin Murray-Boyles and the USC starting backcourt of Jacobi Wright and Jamarii Thomas seemed uncomfortable for the majority of the half. The trio combined to go 4-17 from the field with four turnovers in the half.

In contrast, Indiana shot better than 50% from the floor and from the perimeter in the opening stanza. Mackenzie Mgbako and Myles Rice had 29 points by themselves.

After the break, the energy was better for the Gamecocks, but the results weren’t.

Indiana caught a couple of breaks, including an accidental 3-pointer on a poor alley-oop attempt and several questionable calls from the officiating crew. But even without those breaks, the Gamecocks didn’t do enough on defense to slow down the Hoosiers.

The lead swelled to 16 after a Trey Galloway 3-pointer pushed the crimson and cream back to 50% 3-point shooting. Malik Reneau joined Mgbako and Rice in double-figures thanks to poor paint defense from the Gamecocks.

The offense wasn’t overly efficient, either.

The 3-pointers stopped falling. Following a hot start for Ugusuk and Stute in the first half, the team made just one outside shot in the second period. Outside of one 5-for-7 stretch, the Gamecocks couldn’t put the ball in the basket consistently.

Collin Murray-Boyles fouled out with just over eight minutes left in the game. He had just two points and turned the ball over four times.

The Gamecocks never quit in this one, but the deficit was too much to overcome. The Gamecocks fought and had some good moments in the 2nd half, but in the end, Indiana won 87-71.

[GamecockCentral: $1 for 7 days and 50% off first year]

Two observations

South Carolina’s most important offensive players weren’t ready for the moment

Jacobi Wright, Jamarii Thomas, and Collin Murray-Boyles combined to go 4-17 in the first half. Nick Pringle didn’t take a shot in 15 minutes and was scoreless. As the team’s four leading scorers heading into the game, that left the Gamecock offense in a huge hole. Myles Stute was the only typical scorer who had a pulse early, scoring nine points on three made 3s.

Things weren’t better after halftime. CMB fouled out with just two points and four turnovers. Thomas and Wright finished the game 7-25 from the field. Stute’s hot start didn’t last as he shot 1-8 in the second half. Pringle was much better in the second half, however.

Moving forward, the Gamecocks have to get more from their starters, especially from the guards and from forward Murray-Boyles as the team’s best player.

This year’s defense is not the same as last year’s

Sure, it hurt that Zach Davis left the game with an injury and then played a little hobbled the rest of the way. Even if grading on a curve because of that, the Gamecocks were not good defensively on Saturday. Indiana shot better than 50% from the field and from the arc in the first half and also added eight second-chance points. Jamarii Thomas is a high-effort defender, but against long guard Myles Rice, he was ineffective.

Following the intermission, things improved a bit on that end of the floor. Even so, Indiana wound up finishing the day with a 51%/47% shooting split.

[See the Gamecock discussion on The Insiders Forum!]

Key stat

28%-47% 3-point percentage comparison—South Carolina lost the shooting battle on Saturday. Despite hot starts from Myles Stute and Morris Ugusuk, the Gamecocks shot under 30% again from outside (the third time through four games this season). Indiana, a team that is not a huge 3-point squad, had their best shooting day of the year.

[On3 App: Get South Carolina push notifications from GamecockCentral]

Turning point

It might seem odd to call an early-game run a “turning point,” but Indiana’s 14-0 stretch in the 1st half was critical. South Carolina was the better team for about two and a half minutes before everything went wrong. Indiana scored 14 points in less than three minutes and held the Gamecocks scoreless. From that point on, the Hoosiers played with confidence, while Carolina played rushed and looked uncomfortable.

A late-game run from the Gamecocks kept things somewhat interesting, but South Carolina wound up losing by a 16-point margin.

Up next

South Carolina will return home for a contest against the Mercer Bears on Thursday. Tip-off is at 7:00 p.m., and the game will stream on SEC Network+ and the ESPN app.

Discuss South Carolina basketball on The Insiders Forum!