South Carolina comes up short in near-upset of Auburn on Saturday

Trailing by one with nine seconds to play, this was South Carolina’s chance to do what many thought to be nearly impossible coming into the day. Nick Pringle stood at the free throw line with a chance to tie or give the Gamecocks the lead over Auburn.

Pringle, whose free throw shooting had improved throughout the season, readied to try and come through for his team. Even though this was a home game for the Gamecocks, the Auburn fans who made the trip were the loudest they’d been all game, making it feel like The Jungle.

His first shot missed, meaning all he could hope to do was tie the game with his next one. But his second free throw attempt clanked off the rim and rolled onto the floor where Auburn was able to take back possession.

After Auburn’s Tahaad Pettiford was fouled and hit his two free throws on the other end of the floor, that gave the Tigers all they needed to survive in a 66-63 win over South Carolina on Saturday.

“It definitely hurts,” Pringle said. “… I definitely got to take a lot of accountability. At least one of them has to go. I can’t miss both. But yeah, it was a tough environment, for sure. I mean, I feel like Auburn brought a lot of fans out.”

The Gamecocks (10-6, 0-3 SEC) have now lost three straight games and will still be searching for their first SEC win of the year as they go on the road next week.

How it happened

Auburn got off to a roaring start, going a perfect 6-for-6 from the field to open the game. The shots continued to fall for the Tigers as they were up by as much as nine points within the first seven minutes.

But South Carolina responded in a big way with an 8-0 run to trim the deficit down to one. Throughout the rest of the first half, things would remain tight knit mainly due to how physical and aggressive the Gamecocks were playing.

They might not have shot as well from the field as Auburn did, shooting at 42.9 percent and 2-for-9 from behind the arc, but they were more effective in the rebounding department. They hauled in 21 rebounds compared to the Tigers’ 14, which made a big difference in being able to stay in the fight.

After another 8-0 run, the Gamecocks reclaimed the lead and held on to it for the rest of the half. They were able to extend that lead thanks to a key 14-2 run over a six-minute stretch.

Going into the break, South Carolina was up by six points, holding a 40-34 lead. While Auburn was shooting 50 percent from the field, it was a quiet showing from the team’s top player, Johni Broome, who went for four points on 2-of-8 shooting.

Matching up against Broome, Collin Murray-Boyles, who was in the middle of a brief slump, returned to form with an 18-point first half to lead the way to the strong start. Murray-Boyles finished the day with 25 points on 10-of-18 shooting.

“Nothing different from what I’ve been doing in those previous games. Just staying focused. Doing what my team needs me to do,” Murray-Boyles said. “Overall, just being way more aggressive. I think my first two conference games, I wasn’t being myself and being as aggressive as I showed in non-conference. So I just wanted to turn it up another notch and play the hardest I could.”

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South Carolina started out cold to open the second half, going 1-for-6, which gave Auburn the window it needed to get back in the game. The Tigers managed to tie the game within the first five minutes after the break with a 9-3 run.

As Auburn continued to stay hot, it eventually took back the lead with 13 minutes to go after a Chaney Johnson made three-pointer. But the Tigers suffered a big loss when Broome had to be helped to the locker room after not being able to put any weight on his left foot.

Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl later revealed after the game that Broome has a sprained ankle. They’ll go back to Auburn and get it checked out to see if there’s anything more with his injury.

However, while the Tigers were back in front, they couldn’t build off the lead they had initially taken. South Carolina wouldn’t go away as it reclaimed the lead going into the under-eight minute mark after Arden Conyers connected for his second three of the game.

Conyers, who has seen an increase in minutes with starters Myles Stute and Jamarii Thomas both out, made the most of his opportunity. After going 1-for-6 from the field against Alabama, he had a much better showing this time around. The redshirt freshman guard went for a career-high 13 points.

With South Carolina up by one in the final two minutes, Auburn took the lead after Dylan Cardwell finished off a wide-open dunk. The Tigers, who gave up 40 first-half points, were able to hold the Gamecocks to 23 in the second half and without any in the final five minutes.

“To hold South Carolina to 63 points, particularly 23 in the second half, is significant,” said Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl. “… We all stepped up. 23 points in the second half, they don’t score in the last five minutes, that’s just a will to win.”

Two observations

Made progress in a lot of ways—While it ends up as another loss on the schedule, South Carolina at least showed a lot of good on Saturday. For this only being the third game of SEC play, it didn’t look that far removed from being the team that can be right in the mix to try and win a game. This was a much more competitive showing from the Gamecocks and it started with how physical and aggressive they were playing.

“I thought our guys fought hard and played well and managed the game effectively for a large part of the game,” head coach Lamont Paris said.

CMB returns to his old self—To put it simply, when Murray-Boyles is at his best, the rest of the team follows. The sophomore forward had a tremendous game, finishing with 25 points to lead the Gamecocks in scoring. This is exactly the type of performance the team needed from their star player.

Key stat

37 to 33—A big part of being able to stay in this game for as long as the Gamecocks did came down to playing well in the paint. They were very aggressive and making the key rebounds near the rim, winning the rebound battle 37-33.

Turning point

After grabbing the lead back with a little over five minutes to go, South Carolina couldn’t muster a single point from that point on. The Gamecocks finished the game with a scoring drought that lasted the final 5:18 of the game.

Up next

South Carolina will hit the road for the next week, starting with a trip to face Vanderbilt on Wednesday. Tip-off is at 6 p.m. on SEC Network.

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