Stagnant offense leads to second-straight SEC loss

The losses keep mounting up for South Carolina. 

Days after a 41-point blowout at home to Texas A&M, the Gamecocks lost by 12 points to an Ole Miss team that had lost six straight. 

The 70-58 loss was the team’s fourth in SEC play and third by at least 10 points and drops South Carolina to 0-3 at home in league play. 

“I thought our energy was pretty good. I thought we had a good level of energy. We didn’t shoot the ball particularly well at multiple positions,” Lamont Paris said. “Between Hayden, GG and Meechie–in particular–struggle to score the basketball it ends up being a struggle for us on that day. If all three of those guys have a subpar day it’s hard for us to generate stuff.

How it happened

Like South Carolina (8-10, 1-4 SEC) has in its last two home games, the Gamecocks fell behind early. Ole Miss jumped out to a quick eight-point lead while the Gamecocks chiseled that down thanks to some better defense.

•Subscribe to Gamecock Central until Aug. 31 for only $29.99

The game was largely a three-point for most of the first half before South Carolina started to stagnate offensively. The Gamecocks went through a very long stretch without much offense, including multiple minutes-long scoreless droughts where the Rebels ballooned their lead to 10 at the half. 

The Gamecocks didn’t get much from their big three in the first half with Meechie Johnson, GG Jackson and Hayden Brown combining for just six points on 3-for-15 shooting and no threes made. 

But South Carolina came out much better in the second half, starting things with a 6-0 run with seven of the first nine points scored by either Brown or Johnson, largely aided by open-court opportunities. 

Ole Miss would answer though, ripping off a 10-0 run aided by an over three-minute long South Carolina scoreless drought. The Gamecocks, after starting the half as crisp as possible, missed four straight shots with a turnover mixed in as well. 

“A big part during that is you’re getting stops. That’s a big part of it. You’re getting stops, there’s an easy basket sprinkled in here or there,” Paris said. “What happens a lot with this particular team–and it’s a natural phenomenon, natural instinct–is when we have it going like that we play well. We shoot better and do a lot of different things. Then when something happens that stops abruptly, that tends to snowball in the other direction.” 

•Become a NIL supporter of your South Carolina Gamecocks!

South Carolina kept things around that 10-point mark for a good chunk of the second half but could never truly make a run. The Gamecocks turned the ball over nine times and shot just 36.7 percent from the field and 6-for-24 from three.

Ole Miss, though, came in as one of the worst three-point shooting teams in the country and shot 10-for-24 (41.7 percent). Matthew Murrell led the way with 23 points while going 5-for-11 from three.

“We left Murrell a couple of times. He’s a good shooter, a great shooter,” “I feel like those were late rotations, not seeing it,” said Chico Carter, who finished with 12 points. “But yeah we let them shoot the ball pretty good tonight from three.” 

Only two Gamecocks finished in double figures while it was a struggle for Johnson, who finished with five points on 2-for-10 shooting and made just one of his seven threes.

Two observations

GG Jackson has to find ways to score the ball–There are going to be nights where South Carolina’s potential lottery pick has an off-night shooting early, but he has to find ways to score outside of that. Jackson finished with a team-high 15 points on 5-for-19 shooting and made just two of his six threes.

• Subscribe (for free) to the Gamecock Central YouTube page!

When shots aren’t falling, he has to find ways to get to the line and didn’t Tuesday. He finished with zero free throw attempts. Jackson found ways to impact the score sheet outside of hitting shots–seven boards and three assists to one turnover–but the Gamecocks have to have points from him, too. Most of his points game with aggressive play, but most came once the game was in hand.

Rebounding is going to need immense fixing–South Carolina was one of the better offensive rebounding teams in the country through non-conference play and has put up back-to-back clunkers on the glass. The Gamecocks were out-rebounded again Tuesday 42-31 and only rebounded five of their 38 misses. South Carolina has no answer in the post regardless of who’s in, and it showed. Ole Miss had seven offensive boards on 27 misses. 

“Our bigger-than-average guys have not rebounded well the last few games. Lats game from our five-spot we had three defensive rebounds the entire game. What am I to do about that? Tell a guy to rebound? You think I’ve never told one of these guys to rebound? Hey, you’re tall and stuff. You should be getting some of these,” Paris said.

“Or I can say, ‘Meechie, you have to go get 15 rebounds.’ He does rebound well for a guard but you have to rebound. You have to do it…You have to anticipate it. You have to want it. You have to be grimey when it comes down to that and you have to get after it.” 

Key stat

9 to 18–South Carolina’s offense largely stagnated and the Gamecocks struggled to move the ball and get quality looks. They finished with nine assists on 22 makes while Ole Miss assisted on 18 of its 23 made field goals. Neither offense set the world on fire Tuesday, but the more efficient one moved the ball better. 

• Get South Carolina baseball news and analysis via email

Turning point

With about five minutes to go, Hayden Brown–back from a thigh bruise injury–made a decisive, aggressive move to the basket and finished. The bucket cut the deficit to just single digits, but Ole Miss would come right now and drill a three seconds later. The Rebels would be up double-digits the rest of the way. 

Up next

South Carolina’s three-game homestand ends Saturday with the Gamecocks hosting Auburn at 3:30 p.m. on the SEC Network. Shane Beamer and the Gamecock football team will be honored at halftime of the game.

Discuss South Carolina basketball on The Insiders Forum!