South Carolina gets crushed by Mississippi State in blowout loss in SEC opener

Just like putting lipstick on a pig, there was nothing to patch all the holes South Carolina had. A pig is still a pig, and the Gamecocks are still a team with a lot of problems.

It wasn’t as big of a deal since the team still found a way to win 10 games in non-conference play, albeit against mid-major opponents. But in the back of everyone’s mind, there was always a concern that once the competition picked up, the flaws would rise to the surface. It only took one game into the new year for those worst fears to be realized.

To open SEC play, South Carolina (10-4) was outplayed from start to finish in an 85-50 loss to No. 17 Mississippi State on Saturday.

“(Mississippi State) did a lot of things well and we didn’t do very many things well at all,” head coach Lamont Paris said after the game. “We played poorly, I thought, in a lot of different ways, as shooters, as passers, as decision makers, a lot of facets.”

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How it happened

As has been the case all season, South Carolina dug itself into a deep hole with a slow start. In previous games, the team had been able to claw their way out and come out on top by the end. This time around, there was no chance that was going to happen.

From the early minutes of the game, Mississippi State looked ready to play while the Gamecocks were asleep at the wheel. Josh Hubbard drained two quick three-pointers to spark a 15-2 run to open the first half. South Carolina, which looked all out of rhythm, couldn’t generate any offense while allowing the Bulldogs to control the tempo.

In that stretch, the Gamecocks went more than six minutes without any points. They wouldn’t get their 10th point of the day until the 5:19 mark of the first half. By that point, they were well behind by double digits.

“We can’t keep falling behind in the first five to ten minutes of the game because every game is not going to be a comeback game. It’s going to be a hard-fought game like this game,” said Zachary Davis, who was the lone bright spot, finishing with 22 points on 6-of-13 shooting in 24 minutes.

“Just (need to) come out aggressive with the mindset of this is your last game. So just having the weight on your shoulder, I feel like we’ll come out more aggressive.”

Towards the end of the half, South Carolina got a few shots to fall but nothing substantial enough to make a dent on the scoreboard. Mississippi State went into the break on a 10-0 run to take a commanding 43-18 lead.

All of things that had gone wrong for South Carolina in non-conference play were magnified in the first half on Saturday. The Gamecocks went 6-for-26 from the field and had 10 turnovers, a recipe for disaster.

There was no way to sugarcoat just how bad things got by halftime. South Carolina struggled to keep up with Mississippi State’s fast-paced play. Collin Murray-Boyles had more turnovers (5) than points (3) in the first half. He wasn’t the only one to struggle, though. Nobody could seem to get it going from the Gamecocks.

“In some ways, (the struggles are) connected in that if you’re doing bad things offensively, my shot quality might suffer, so it’s hard for me to play well. But in reality, you can shoot poorly, and I can shoot well. I mean, I’m not going to be affected by you,” Paris said.

“But it just seems that things are connected versus somebody else saying, ‘I’m going to do these things that’s going to help us right now. Anybody else who wants to jump on board, you start doing them too.'”

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With the game already well in hand for the Bulldogs, things only continued to get worse for South Carolina. Four minutes into the second half, the Gamecocks were already down by 30 points.

South Carolina shot 29.1 percent from the floor and went 2-for-19 from three-point range. The Gamecocks turned the ball over 14 times while Mississippi State shot 56.5 percent with eight threes. Murray-Boyles, who could never turn it around, wound up with six turnovers and five points.

“They just played a lot more aggressive than us,” Nick Pringle said. “We had to stay in front, and we didn’t stay in front as well as we should’ve. They kind of outtoughed us a little bit. That’s something we want to take forward, knowing what we have in the whole SEC. We got 17 more games and it’s going to be a lot of similar games to that. So, we’ve got to step up our game a lot to be able to handle the rest of the games coming our way.”

Two observations

Really bad basketball—Even in a season where South Carolina won 26 games last year, it still got beat up a little bit with a pair of 30-plus point losses. The difference with that team was that they were always able to get right back up and respond well. It’s one game but it’s hard to see that happening with this year’s team.

It’s obvious how much the Gamecocks miss the likes of Ta’Lon Cooper, Meechie Johnson and BJ Mack. The new faces brought in to replace those players just haven’t provided the same production. There doesn’t seem to be one easy fix with this group that will turn the tide. It would take a lot more than that.

Going to be a long next few months—Unless something magically changes, this could be a very rough next 17 games for the Gamecocks. Things will only get tougher from here with nine straight Quad 1 games after Saturday. The SEC is an absolute force to be reckoned with this season. It doesn’t help that South Carolina looked to be no match for Mississippi State. This is just the first of many good teams that the Gamecocks will play going forward.

Key stat

7-for-30—To really drive home how things went, the entire starting five finished with a combined 22 points, the same point total as Davis had alone. Together, they shot an abysmal 7-of-30 from the floor. All five starters finished with eight points or less on Saturday.

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Turning point

After tying the game at two on a Jacobi Wright layup, South Carolina went more than six minutes without a single point. Because of that scoring drought, it allowed for Mississippi State to build a commanding lead and go on a 13-0 run before the Gamecocks would score again.

Up next

South Carolina will return to Columbia to begin a home stand in the early portion of SEC play. The Gamecocks will face No. 5 Alabama on Wednesday night at Colonial Life Arena. Tip-off is at 7 p.m. on SEC Network.

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