Late second-half slump plagues South Carolina in tight loss to No. 18 Georgia

8:18 left to go. Eli Ellis had just made his third straight shot, a driving layup off a fastbreak, to give South Carolina an eight-point lead in the midst of an 8-0 run against No. 18 Georgia.

With how well the Gamecocks were playing, a few more baskets could’ve potentially created enough separation to put the game away and pull off a big upset in front of a solid home crowd.

Sound familiar? Because if it does, that’s exactly the scenario that South Carolina faced so many times last season, yet came up short virtually every time.

Even though it’s a new season, the same remains true. The Gamecocks saw their lead slowly slip away as they suffered a 75-70 loss to the Bulldogs at Colonial Life Arena.

There are multiple reasons why they ultimately lost this game. Head coach Lamont Paris summed up the primary reason perfectly.

“If I look at this stretch, these are things that I remember specifically, not to call anyone out, but these are just plays that I remember,” Paris said after the game. “I know Meechie (Johnson) got a wide-open three. Elijah (Strong) had an open three. Elijah passed up an open three and then threw to Meechie for an open three. Myles (Stute) had an open three in the corner. Kobe (Knox) was at the basket, and we threw like a little lob to him, and he caught it and missed it right at the rim. We ran a hammer play to Myles in the corner for a wide-open three. Even down to Mike (Sharavjamts)’s layup at the very end that we missed.”

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All of those sequences that Paris listed off one by one, none of them led to points. After Strong scored on a layup to give South Carolina (10-6, 1-2 SEC) a one-point lead with 5:42 to go, the next made shot didn’t come until Johnson made a late three-pointer with five seconds left.

After shooting 48.1 percent in the first half, the Gamecocks were much worse in the second half, shooting only 35.5 percent from the field. But only making two more shots after taking an eight-point lead with eight minutes to go proved to be their biggest downfall.

“The main thing was that we had a bunch of plays, and it got that way in the LSU game a little bit, but then Elijah made a big play around the basket,” Paris said about not being able to finish strong. “And he got a similar shot in this game that went in and rolled around and then came out. And you need that one, the guys need that one to say, ‘Okay, eight turns to six, six turns to four,’ whatever that is.”

Even before South Carolina’s shooting slump really began, there was a pivotal foul call, one that would be changed to a technical. Kobe Knox saw a common foul be upgraded to a flagrant one, which sent Georgia’s Somtochukwu Cyril for two free throws, both of which he made to give the Bulldogs the lead.

When that happened, there were still more than five minutes left to play. But as it turned out, this was the moment where Georgia took the lead for good and never gave it back to the Gamecocks.

“It was just real unfortunate,” said Knox, who finished with a double-double and had 10 points and 10 rebounds. “Incidental contact, you know, I was just guarding the ball, and the screen came, and my arm got caught a little bit too high. He caught me in a bad area. It’s just unfortunate since it gave (Georgia) two free throws and a free possession.”

That’s hardly why South Carolina lost, though. The team missed six free throws, which loom much larger considering it ended up being a five-point loss. But even that wasn’t truly why, since it went 15-of-21 (71.4) at the line.

More than anything, it was just continuously missing out on opportunities. It almost came back to bite them in nearly blowing a second-half lead at LSU earlier this week. This time, the Gamecocks weren’t as fortunate and paid the price in the end.

“It’s just frustrating when you put yourself in a position to win to not win,” Paris said.

Up next: South Carolina will begin a two-game road trip, starting on Tuesday night when the Gamecocks face No. 15 Arkansas in Fayetteville. Tip-off will be at 9 p.m. on SEC Network.

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