South Carolina drops fourth straight game in road loss to Texas Longhorns

South Carolina, down the stretch, found itself within three points heading out of the final media timeout against Texas. To that point of the season, the Gamecocks were doing their best impression of the football season before it, sitting at 0-6 in games decided by five points or less.

By the end of the night, South Carolina did not have to worry about adding to that list. The Longhorns had already pulled away down the stretch and handed the Gamecocks an 84-75 loss on Tuesday.

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South Carolina (11-12, 2-8 SEC) raced out to a relatively hot start defensively, holding the Longhorns without a field goal for the game’s opening three-and-a-half minutes. However, the Gamecocks couldn’t make it count, struggling to score themselves.

The Longhorns dominated the Gamecocks on the glass throughout the opening half, leading to many fouls committed by South Carolina. Though the Longhorns struggled from the field, shooting 8-26 in the first half, a 21-free-throw first half kept Texas in the game.

At the break, four Gamecocks had two fouls while Elijah Strong picked up three fouls in four minutes of play. Additionally, Texas outrebounded South Carolina 21-13, the Gamecocks allowing 11 offensive rebounds.

In his first career start, EJ Walker provided the spark for South Carolina early, scoring the game’s opening points. The true freshman forward scored a career-high eight points despite the Gamecock loss. Walker’s foul trouble kept him from fully capitalizing on his solid night, picking up four fouls on the night.

However, while its freshman proved useful early, it was veteran Meechie Johnson who carried the Gamecocks throughout the half. The sixth-year guard scored 15 of the team’s 31 first-half points. Johnson has silently settled into his best career season, being one of four players to rank in the top 15 in points and top five in assists in Southeastern Conference play. Johnson recently scored 21 in an overtime loss to LSU on Saturday afternoon.

By the end of the night, Johnson scored a career-high 35 points alongside six assists and a defensive rebound.

Texas did not lead until just under three minutes to go in the first half. However, once they took it, they didn’t relinquish it for the rest of the half. As South Carolina went five minutes without a field goal, Texas took a 35-31 lead into the break.

As the second half pushed on, the Gamecocks and Longhorns traded buckets and the lead. Heading out of the under-16 media break, the pair of teams exchanged the lead three times in two minutes.

Then, as the clock ticked under ten minutes to go, Cam Heide briefly took over, giving the Longhorns their longest lead of the night after back-to-back threes put Texas up six. While South Carolina, mainly Johnson, continued to score, the three-point flurry proved insurmountable for most of the half.

Kobe Knox had a shot to cut it to two with six minutes to go, then another Texas three-pointer pushed the Longhorns’ lead to seven. Though Johnson continued to keep South Carolina in fighting distance from the free-throw line, the Gamecocks continued to struggle to get field goals to drop. As the Longhorns extended their lead to eight, the Texas crowd got into it for the first time on the night.

However, the crowd also got South Carolina’s defense in it. After breaking the three-minute drought without a field goal, the Gamecocks started to lock down the Longhorns. Following a couple of clutch layups from Strong and one from Mike Sharavjamts, the Gamecocks found themselves within three heading into the final media timeout.

It didn’t last long coming out of it. Dailyn Swain scored four quick points for Texas. Suddenly, a 10-3 run had Texas up nine as the clock ticked under 30 seconds to go.

Up next: South Carolina returns home to face the Missouri Tigers on Saturday. Tip-off is set for 1 p.m. on the SEC Network.

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