What went wrong as Gamecocks drop home SEC game to Georgia Bulldogs

For the third-straight time, South Carolina walked into its locker room at halftime in a one-point game. This time was at home, however.

A six-minute-long scoring drought threatened USC’s 10-game win streak inside Colonial Life Arena. It was physical play after physical play as the waning minutes added more pressure on the Gamecocks. Frustrated by fouls, both called and uncalled, the Gamecocks (14-3, 2-2 SEC) were forced to watch as Georgia slowly pulled away.

The Bulldogs’ attack proved to be too much, and Georgia (13-4, 3-1 SEC) walked out of USC’s home court Tuesday night with a 74-69 victory.

Forgo the charity stripe

In all, South Carolina missed 15 of its 32 free-throw attempts on the night.

Five of the 15 came consecutively. At the end of the day, that was a major eye sore on the stat sheet. The Gamecocks gave away a lot of second-chance points as well, but with a game as close as it was, those free throws were points left on the table.

“I think that the heavens and earth and everything, the sky, would have opened up if we would have somehow won this game,” head coach Lamont Paris said, “because we shouldn’t have been in position to have a chance to win this game based on how we played.”

It felt like a snowball effect: While the Bulldogs mounted a comeback, the Gamecocks were quiet everywhere. Missing those 15 points, then getting outscored 41-35 in the second half, put USC’s backs against the wall. Even when Johnson or Mack did come to the line in the those final minutes, the missed charity throws from before haunted South Carolina.

“I don’t think it affects us mentally,” BJ Mack said. “But you do think about it for your next one a little bit.”

The game counts as a Quad 3 loss for South Carolina, according to Warren Nolan, since the Bulldogs sit at a NET ranking in the 80s. Whereas Georgia gets a Quad 1 win, since USC had home court advantage and a NET 55 rating.

Something like the other Bulldogs

Remember just last week, when South Carolina turned the tide against Mississippi State after struggling to get a shot off? How it took a few tries before the Gamecocks started implementing some adjustments on offense, and it worked?

Tuesday felt a bit like deja vu in that sense. At least it did at first.

The Georgia Bulldogs showed up to Colonial Life Arena with a similar game plan to what Mississippi State did just last week: Force USC to pass, a lot. Double Meechie Johnson. Focus on winning the rebound battle.

“This is a physical league,” Mack said. “And throughout the games, they have been physical before, just like Mississippi State and Alabama and Missouri. So we’ve just got to keep going through that adversity of that physicality.”

While Georgia didn’t exactly match what Mississippi State brought, its plan created eight lead changes in the first half. South Carolina’s offense has been increasingly reliant on points in the paint after two-straight games with less-than-stellar 3-point shooting. On Tuesday, the Gamecocks put up 32 points down low.

The second half is where Georgia started pulling away. USC couldn’t score a field goal for nearly half of the second half. There were five-straight free throws missed. South Carolina had 16 fouls called on it in the second half, 30 combined in the final 20 minutes, and 44 for the entire game. Tempers started to flare.

Paris said it would’ve taken much more than one big-time play to flip the switch, and the Gamecocks just didn’t have it.

“I don’t want to take anything away from Georgia. They have a good team,” he said in his opening statement postgame. “There’s no doubt about it. But we also we didn’t play great. We didn’t deserve to be where we were in the game down the stretch, to be 100% honest.”

Meechie Magic starting to kick back in

After a quiet game against Missouri on Saturday, Meechie Johnson was back scoring 12 points in the opening 20 minutes against Georgia.

Johnson picked up six points from 3-point range in the first half and, as usual, both were contested shots. It took him nine minutes to score in the second half, during the midst of the Bulldog attack.

Johnson has two games with under 10 points this season. He regained his position as the team’s top scorer, too, finishing Tuesday’s game with 19 points and four rebounds.

Of course, some of that included trying to play a little bit of hero ball. As Georgia put together a 19-3 run in the second half, Johnson brought the game back to a one-score affair with his third trey of the evening. Johnson received a Flagrant 1 foul with 2:46 left to play. As frustrated as he and Paris were with the call, it brought the game back to a two-score affair in favor of the Bulldogs. He fouled out with 11 seconds to play, as Georgia put the icing on its victory.

“This was the explanation that I got,” Paris said of the Flagrant 1 call, “was that the guy was in the air. He was defenseless. And he was shoved in the back without a play on the ball. (That) was what I was told.”

It wasn’t the outcome USC needed, but having their top scorer back to his average scoring was a lift the Gamecocks needed as they prepare for another road trip.

An update on Myles Stute

Stute left the game in the second half after taking a hard fall in the paint, twisting his arm into an awkward angle during a box-out attempt. The junior, favoring his left shoulder area, left the game with just under 11 minutes to play and didn’t return.

“I don’t know,” Paris said. “But he’s in a lot of pain right now.”

Paris said postgame that Stute will get an MRI on Wednesday morning, but didn’t have an immediate answer to what the problem might be. Stute’s played in every game this season, averaging 10 points per game and playing at least 19 minutes per contest.

Other notable stats

• South Carolina’s loss at home snaps a 10-game home winning streak, going back to defeating Georgia on March 4, 2023. It’s also the first home loss for the Gamecocks this season.

• The Gamecocks’ 53.1% free throw shooting was their worst of the season, after going 58.8% against DePaul on Nov. 17.

Next four games

• Saturday at Arkansas, 1 p.m. (SEC Network)

• Jan. 23 vs. Kentucky, 7 p.m. (SEC Network)

• Jan. 27 vs. Missouri, 1 p.m. (SEC Network)

• Jan. 30 vs. Tennessee, 6:30 p.m. (SEC Network)