Struggles plague South Carolina in stunning upset loss to North Florida in season opener

It’s just one game. It’s awfully hard to fully judge a team based on a one-game sample size. But eyebrows were certainly raised, and not in a good way.

In a game plagued by struggles, South Carolina opened the 2024-25 regular season with a shocking 74-71 loss to North Florida on Monday. After so much talk about what would be next after making the NCAA Tournament, the Gamecocks are off to an 0-1 start.

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How it happened

Much like their exhibition game against Wooster, the Gamecocks started off slow and played sloppy. Between turnovers and missed free throws, they couldn’t get much going in the early minutes.

After shooting just over 45 percent at the free throw line last week, South Carolina was off to a 7-of-14 start going into halftime, unable to convert on its opportunities.

North Florida wasn’t able to find its rhythm in the early going either. But one thing the Ospreys did a lot of last season was shoot three-pointers, which they did more than any team in all of college basketball. And right out of the gate, that was the case on Monday. They went 5-for-17 from three-point range in the first half.

Since the Ospreys were starting to hit some of their shots, this made it tough for the Gamecocks to gain control. But eventually, they went on a 7-0 run capped off by a Jordan Butler corner three to take a seven-point lead with under four minutes to go before the break.

But the tough shots continued to occasionally fall for North Florida, despite South Carolina’s best defensive efforts. Still, while they didn’t play their best basketball by any means, the Gamecocks managed to take a five-point lead into halftime.

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Once again, the Gamecocks were off to a sluggish start in the second half. The only good news was that North Florida wasn’t playing any better and still unable to take the lead back. After hitting their first three shots, the Ospreys only made one of their next seven shots.

With under seven minutes to go, North Florida started to catch a bit of fire and hit six of seven shots at one point. Despite this, South Carolina still clamored to its lead that continued to dwindle all the way down to one.

The Gamecocks slowly started to look on their way out of their funk as they hit three straight shots with a Collin Murray-Boyles layup and two good shots from Jacobi Wright. But the Ospreys weren’t going away and kept battling with made shots of their own.

With under two minutes to go, North Florida hit back-to-back threes to take back the lead for the first time since the early minutes of the game. This gave the Ospreys the momentum they so desperately needed to be in the driver’s seat and control how the rest of this game would go.

Needing to get a stop or foul, South Carolina had the worst possible outcome and fouled Jaylen Smith on his way to the rim for an and one to give the Ospreys the cushion they needed to hold on and win.

Two observations

Free throwing shooting has been concerning—It’s easy to say South Carolina should have no problem making easy free throws. It’s a fair criticism to make. The Gamecocks were shooting just 50 percent at the line at halftime. And they weren’t much better as the game wore on. They finished just 14-for-25, one of the main reasons behind why they lost this game.

Slow starts haven’t been ideal—Are we judging this all by a very minuscule sample size? Yes. That’s what we have to base this team off of, though. South Carolina should be fine in the long run. The team has proven to be able to work out any kinks under Lamont Paris. But it’s still very troublesome that the Gamecocks couldn’t cash in on their opportunities. It also didn’t help that North Florida just wouldn’t go away. It’s one thing to play sluggish and find a way eventually, but they just never could pull away.

Key stat

56 percent—If there’s any reason for why this game was as close as it was, look no further than South Carolina’s abysmal free throw percentage. The Gamecocks were just 14-for-25 on their free throw attempts.

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Turning point

After holding onto the lead for most of the game, South Carolina eventually let things slip away and allowed North Florida to come from behind. Kamrin Oriol hit a three to tie the game at 64, then Jasai Miles hit the go-ahead three to take the lead for good with under two minutes to play.

Up next

South Carolina will be back at home to face SC State on Friday. Tip-off is at 7 p.m. on SEC Network Plus.

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