South Carolina can't capitalize on momentum, blown out by Texas A&M

Just a week after the worst SEC loss in program history, South Carolina found a way to have a similar day Saturday.

The Gamecocks, who went on the road Tuesday and beat Kentucky, returned home and followed that up with a 41-point loss to Texas A&M. 

The 94-53 loss was South Carolina’s third loss this season by at least 30 points this season. The Gamecocks lost by 32 to Colorado State and 43 last Saturday to Tennessee.

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How it happened

The shot-making and energy the Gamecocks (8-9, 1-3 SEC) showed in an upset against Kentucky didn’t come back Saturday night. 

South Carolina found themselves on the wrong end of a 12-2 run to start the game, getting out-hustled and out-muscled while the Aggies saw their first-half lead balloon to as much as 35 points. 

The Aggies ended the half on an 18-6 run and ultimately led by 32 at the break. 

“At one point they had missed 16 times and had rebounded 10 of their own 16 misses. That’s not a good percentage. While we had offensive struggles, there’s no doubt about that. I’ll take some responsibility on that,” Paris said. “We were asking guys to do some things. We came out right away and turned it over and thought we had a good situation and turned it over. Poor execution there. Other times we looked unsure of where to get to, which was trying to attack.”

The Gamecocks started by missing 10 of their first 14 shots, including six of their first seven threes, while Texas A&M got inside and to the line early and often. The Aggies brought in offensive rebounds on 19 of their 27 misses including six of their first seven. 

The effort and energy on display from the word go against Kentucky wasn’t there, and it led to yet another blowout loss at home. The Gamecocks were outmatched physically from the jump and it showed.

After leading wire-to-wire against Kentucky, the Gamecocks never led Saturday and trailed for all but 33 seconds of game time.

This was a day where, as you look, it’s few and far between successes. Do you believe you can do it? Do you believe this is our day? Do I have real, true belief this is our day and we’ll come back from this?” Paris said. “Or do you fling it around a couple of times and see how it goes? Versus being up. That is an easier situation to have some resilience in when you’ve played well most of the game and the tide turns a little bit…This was just never got it going, tried to hit a 20-point shot and never get back.” 

Texas A&M started the second half with 10 makes on 12 shots while the Gamecocks started just 4-for-12 and 1-for-5 from three. The second half, much like the first, was all Aggies en route to another lopsided loss.  

Missing starting small forward Hayden Brown–who has a deep thigh bruise–the Aggies out-rebounded South Carolina 48-to-16 with the Gamecocks putting up single-digit rebounds in the first half. 

Missing Brown, South Carolina didn’t answer the bell physically.

“We’re learning what it looks like,” Paris said. “As a unit, we don’t perform as well in those situations. As a unit we don’t.” 

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Texas A&M had its way offensively, averaging 1.541 points per possession and getting 55 of its 94 points either from the paint or at the free throw line. 

The Gamecocks, though, were anemic offensively after an impressive showing Tuesday against Kentucky. South Carolina followed up that performance by scoring just 53 points and averaging a paltry 0.855 points per possession against a strong, aggressive defense.

“To some degree, that’s been our kryptonite. You look at the team that we’ve had lopsided losses to, there’s a lot of physicality and aggression with what those teams do on the defensive end,” Paris said. “Versus some other teams that have allowed us to move the ball a little more freely and cut a little more freely, catch the ball more freely…They’re an extremely aggressive team and we didn’t match that level of aggression.” 

The offense–which is predicated on three-pointers falling–went just 6-for-22, 2-for-11 in the first half while the game got away. 

Zachary Davis, making his second-career start for an injured Brown, finished with a career-high 13 points.

Two observations

South Carolina needs Hayden Brown–If Brown played, does South Carolina win? Probably not, but the score might not be as lopsided. The Gamecocks had no answer inside and struggled to have any sort of consistency. A veteran like Brown would have, at minimum, improved it and South Carolina could have avoided the bottom falling out. 

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Effort can’t be this inconsistent–The margins for winning in the SEC are already small, even more so for this iteration of South Carolina basketball. The Gamecocks can’t afford to look this bad from an effort standpoint. The Aggies seemingly came up with every loose ball, and the offensive rebounding numbers reflect that. The Gamecocks looked disjointed offensively and struggled for any stretch of consistency. The effort evident against Kentucky has to be there night in and night out. 

Key stat

27-to-7: Texas A&M turned 19 offensive rebounds into 27 second-chance points, 14 coming in the first half. South Carolina had just one offensive rebound in the first half with no second-chance points, en route to five offensive boards and seven second-chance points.  

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Turning point

After a flurry of Texas A&M buckets early, Meechie Johnson hit a three to make it a seven-point game. The Aggies promptly went on an 18-4 run after that, aided by a four-minute South Carolina scoring drought to effectively put the game away.

Up next

The Gamecocks’ second of three-straight home games comes Tuesday night against Ole Miss. The Rebels (8-9, 0-5 SEC) are on a six-game losing streak and come to Colonial Life Arena for a 6:30 p.m. tip. The game will be on the SEC Network.

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