Unlucky 13: South Carolina's losing streak rolls on with latest loss coming at LSU

If there’s one play that encapsulates South Carolina’s luck this season, look no further than what happened mere seconds before halftime at LSU on Tuesday night.

Already trailing by double digits, the Gamecocks were set up for an inbound pass on their side of the floor with eight seconds to go. Morris Ugusuk looked to throw a lob pass inside to Collin Murray-Boyles for a quick two points. But while his intentions were good, the end result wasn’t.

Ugusuk’s pass didn’t meet his intended target; instead, he went through the net for a wild shot. However, it didn’t count and subsequently became a turnover.

It was that kind of night for South Carolina, the latest in a long list of losses since SEC play began. The Gamecocks (10-16, 0-13 SEC) suffered an 81-67 loss to LSU in Baton Rouge.

How it happened

Entering the back end of the first half, South Carolina only trailed by two points with both teams struggling to find the basket. But LSU quickly got going and pushed its lead from two to double digits within the next four minutes.

The Tigers, who haven’t been a consistent scoring offense all year, had a great first half, shooting 16-for-28 (57.1 percent) from the field. They also went 6-for-11 from three-point range, which only helped in keeping their distance from the Gamecocks.

Once LSU got comfortably ahead, it was hard for South Carolina to try and keep up. The offense shot 40 percent from the floor in the first half but also turned it over nine times. It was a rough start for Nick Pringle, who was kept scoreless and saw three of his shots get blocked trying to drive to the basket in the opening period. The mistakes piled up for the Gamecocks to where they found themselves trailing by 14 at the break.

Coming out of halftime, South Carolina got off to a much-needed good start, with a 7-0 run while keeping the Tigers scoreless for more than two minutes. This allowed it to cut the deficit down to single digits with plenty of time left to go.

As soon as it looked like the Gamecocks might be turning a corner, things reverted to the way they were. LSU quickly went back up by double digits and looked poised to run away with the game.

But to South Carolina’s credit, it continued to fight and eventually got back within nine points for a second time. Just like before, though, the Tigers opened the lead back up with an 8-0 run over the next 90 seconds. And this time, they weren’t letting the Gamecocks make any comeback efforts again.

For as lopsided as the score looked, South Carolina shot much better after the break at a 57.1 percent clip. The problem it had though was LSU still shot fairly well in the second half. The Tigers finished the night shooting an even 50 percent.

Jamarii Thomas had a breakout second-half showing, scoring 19 of his 23 points after the break. The senior guard went 9-of-16 from the field with a trio of made threes. Murray-Boyles had a double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds to go along with two blocks.

However, that was where the Gamecocks received most of their production in this game. Thomas and Murray-Boyles combined for more than 58 percent of the team’s total points. No other player finished with double-digit points. Arden Conyers was the next-highest scorer with nine points on 3-of-5 shooting from behind the arc.

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Two observations

Another ugly loss—South Carolina has come close to seeing its record look much different than where it is right now. Then again, there have also been a handful of blowout losses during this losing streak. With Tuesday’s 14-point loss, this was the seventh time that the Gamecocks have lost by double digits in SEC play.

Hard to see where a win will come—With LSU also being near the bottom of the SEC standings, this always felt like the one game South Carolina could win. But since the Tigers proved to be good enough to handle their business, it does beg the question: can this team avoid going 0-18 before the end of the regular season? Three of the last five games will come at home but even those matchups will be tough.

KenPom is currently giving the Gamecocks an 8.1 percent chance to go winless in SEC play. That percentage is only going to slowly rise as the losses keep piling up.

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Key stat

18 turnovers—With neither of these teams being good this year, the turnover battle was probably going to make a difference in this game. And it did. South Carolina turned the ball over 18 times on Tuesday, with Pringle accounting for one-third of those mistakes. He finished with six turnovers.

Turning point

After cutting the large deficit down to nine points with 13:26 to go, South Carolina found itself down by 17 less than a minute later after LSU went on an 8-0 run. This ended any hopes the Gamecocks had of making a late comeback.

Up next

South Carolina will host the Texas Longhorns at Colonial Life Arena on Saturday night. Tip-off is at 8:30 p.m. on SEC Network.

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