South Carolina Basketball: Gamecocks Fight Back in Starkville, Can’t Quite Hold On vs. Mississippi State

An obliteration in Knoxville on Saturday had Gamecock Nation’s collective psyche in a bad place when they thought of South Carolina basketball. The team responded on Tuesday night with a much better showing early on against the Mississippi State Bulldogs in Starkville.

Offense was the story as both teams shot comfortably over 50% during the opening ten minutes of the first half. The Gamecocks’ ball movement was as good as it had been all season. 11 of the Gamecocks’ first 13 makes came off of assists, and the home Bulldogs almost matched that with 13 of their first 16 buckets set up by teammates. The teams traded scores in the first half, but the Gamecocks usually kept a small lead and rarely trailed in the first period after Mississippi State’s opening bucket gave them a 2-0 lead.

GG Jackson (12 points, 3 rebounds, and 2 assists in the first half) was the top performer early for the visitors, and he played his best half of defensive basketball since the Missouri game. To give the Gamecocks a 26-23 lead, Eli Sparkman continued his hot shooting by knocking down yet another 3-point basket while filling in for the injured Chico Carter.

As the rebounding battle started tilting toward the maroon and white, Mississippi State took the lead right before the under-4:00 media timeout. Tolu Smith led the way for Chris Jan’s squad by starting an all-out assault on the paint that keyed a run to end the half. He finished with 12 first-half points, and when the red lights over the basket flashed to end the first half, the score stood 42-34.

Second-chance points and ball screen defense killed the South Carolina basketball team down the stretch of the first half (4 offensive rebounds led to 4 scores, and the paint was often left open after simple screens at the top of the key).

The second half saw the ball screen trend reverse. The Gamecocks defended much better on switches and started implementing more effective screens into their own half-court offensive sets. Lamont Paris’ team also held the Bulldogs to just two points up until the first media timeout; unfortunately, the Gamecocks only scored three points themselves during the same period, bringing the score to 44-39.

In an unlikely sequence of events, Josh Gray attempted one of his first dribble drives of the season, drew a foul, and hit both free throws to cut the lead to 45-43. After some ugly offense and a Bulldog free throw, Eli Sparkman hit another corner jumper that evened the score at 46-46. State started the half 0-8 from the field (including two air balls), and the sloppiness allowed South Carolina to retake the lead after a Jacobi Wright 3-ball silenced Humphrey Coliseum.

A timeout rescued a gassed Meechie Johnson and Josh Gray, but the Gamecocks still led the Bulldogs 51-50. From there, the game went back and forth. The offenses each missed lots of shots, but free throws kept the scoring going. Three straight turnovers coming from Mississippi State ball pressure resulted in a Lamont Paris timeout after the third giveaway saw a foul on a runout that resulted in lead-granting free throws for DJ Jeffries.

South Carolina coughed the ball up a fourth time in two minutes of play, but the Bulldogs’ own giveaways and fouls kept the score tight. A run of 5-5 shooting for State then pushed the score to 66-61 with 3:12 to go. Shakeel Moore’s three straight buckets took the margin to seven points which proved to be too much to overcome as the Gamecocks could not cut into the deficit after fouling to stop the clock.

Tolu Smith had an excellent first half for Mississippi State and finished with 16 points and 6 rebounds, but Shakeel Moore’s play to close out the game sealed the game for the Bulldogs. He ended up with 20 points, and walk-on Shawn Jones added 11 off the bench. For the Gamecocks, GG Jackson played well (22 points and 8 rebounds), and Josh Gray had his most diverse offensive game of the year on the way to 12 points. Hayden Brown also finished with 12, but starting guards Meechie Johnson and Jacobi Wright could never get going.

South Carolina ended up winning the rebound battle, but it felt like Mississippi State got the most important boards of the game. Live ball turnovers were the difference as the Bulldogs forced 14 giveaways and scored 15 fast break points and 17 points off turnovers. South Carolina finished with 8 combined points in those two categories. A much better showing than Saturday fell short as the Gamecocks could not close the deal when given a second-half lead.

South Carolina will return home for their final regular season game of the year as they will take on the other Bulldogs from Georgia at 1:00 on Saturday on the SECNetwork and ESPN App.