Another Close Game, Another Close Gamecocks Loss

January 12, 2013; Columbia, SC, USA; South Carolina Gamecocks guard Bruce Ellington (23) drives to the basket past Auburn Tigers forward Allen Payne (2) in the first half at Colonial-Life Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Blake-USA TODAY Sports

The Gamecocks didn’t turn the ball over 24 times and the officials didn’t make any horrible last second calls (although they did blow the whistle A LOT against both teams), but South Carolina still lost another close game.

The Auburn Tigers defeated SC 74-71 in Carolina’s first SEC home game of the year.

The Gamecocks lost another close game in the overall SEC opener to Mississippi State on the heels of a ton of turnovers and poor late game officiating, but neither of those were problems against the Tigers.

The problem was defense.

Auburn shot 58 percent from the floor and hit eight three-pointers, while the Gamecocks made the same amount of threes, but hit just 45 percent of their shots.

The Gamecocks out-rebounded the tigers, held on to the ball better, had more assists and grabbed more than twice as many offensive rebounds, but still couldn’t overcome that great shooting percentage.

Damien Leonard had his best game as a Gamecock, with 17 points and 9 rebounds, and Bruce Ellington dropped 18 points and five assists and just two turnovers after a nine turnover performance against Mississippi State.

Rob Chub had a double-double for Auburn of 16 points and 10 rebounds, and Frankie Sullivan scored 17 points to lead the Tigers.