South Carolina basketball is now 14-3 (2-2) after a disappointing home loss to the Georgia Bulldogs. The officiating in the game was abysmal, but the Gamecocks didn't do enough right on Tuesday night to deserve the victory anyway.
After getting dominated down low in the early goings of the 1st half, the Gamecocks were much better in the paint the rest of the opening 20 minutes, both in defending Georgia and in grabbing rebounds. After starting the game losing the rebounding battle 11-5 and giving up 14 points in the paint in the first 14 minutes, Carolina outrebounded UGA 14-8 and didn't surrender another point inside the rest of the half.
Despite forcing just one turnover against Georgia in the 1st half, the Gamecocks led by one at halftime.
In a similar vein to the Alabama loss, Carolina had a horrible stretch of offensive play in the 2nd half in which they missed 11 shots in a row, went 3-11 from the free throw line, and saw a 9-point lead turn into a 7-point deficit.
The poor shooting stretch was compounded by Zach Davis missing almost 10 minutes with a cramp and Myles Stute missing 10 minutes with a shoulder injury after a dirty hook-and-hold play from Georgia's RJ Melendez.
The Gamecocks could not recover from all of that and wound up losing the game 74-69 as Meechie Johnson and Collin Murray-Boyles were the top performers for the night.