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.
South Carolina Basketball vs. Georgia Bulldogs
Thumbs Up 1: Collin Murray-Boyles (Except from the FT Line)
Freshman Collin Murray-Boyles is a budding star for the Gamecocks. Getting his second start of the year, he blocked scored 8 points, grabbed 6 rebounds, swatted 4 shots, dished out 2 assists, and played better overall defense than any post player on the team has done all season. Unfortunately, he was bad at the free throw line (4-10).
Murray-Boyles unlocks a lot of things for the Gamecocks when he is on the floor. He is athletic enough to guard in space, he is big enough to hold up in the post, he's a good enough rebounder to make a difference, and he is aggressive enough on offense to affect the game as a scorer. As he continues to develop, he could become a really good player in garnet and black.
South Carolina Basketball vs. Georgia Bulldogs
Thumbs Up 2: Second Chance Opportunities
In a game in which Georgia outrebounded Carolina by 9, the Gamecocks had a good showing on the offensive glass. Four different players pulled down multiple misses, and USC wound up with 17 second chance points for the game. Somehow that number could have been even higher as the Gamecocks missed multiple bunnies and had a few shots through fouls that almost dropped. Josh Gray and Collin Murray-Boyles each drew two fouls on the offensive glass, as well.
South Carolina Basketball vs. Georgia Bulldogs
Thumbs Up 3: Defense
Other than BJ Mack (more on that in the "thumbs down" section), the Gamecocks played pretty well on defense. USC held Georgia to just 38% shooting and 23% shooting from behind the 3-point arc, and several of the Dawgs' makes came on awkward, contested midrange shots.
Carolina didn't force a ton of turnovers, but that was more a testament to UGA taking care of the basketball. They did, however, block 8 shots, 6 of them by Collin Murray-Boyles and Josh Gray. The defense dipped a bit after Zach Davis had to play through a cramp and Myles Stute left the game with an injury (Coach Paris played three smaller guards most of the way down the stretch), but the defensive effort was far from the problem against Mike White's team.
South Carolina Basketball vs. Georgia Bulldogs
Thumbs Down 1: BJ Mack's Defense
BJ Mack is a very important player for the Gamecocks. He can be a good scorer when he's knocking down jumpshots or he's feeling it with his left-moving post spin. However, his defense is usually pretty bad, and against Georgia, it was just that.
He got bullied by big man Russell Tchebwe early in the game, and then he got run around when Mike White elected to go small down the stretch. UGA targeted him in the pick-and-roll and in general ball screen defense, and they got a lot of good looks out of that philosophy, scoring 30 points in the paint. He also only added 5 rebounds despite being the Gamecocks' biggest player on the floor almost the whole game (8 combined minutes for Benjamin Bosmans-Verdonk, Stephen Clark, and Josh Gray).
Mack also is pretty aggressive coming out to the perimeter on defense, something that a player with his limited athleticism probably shouldn't do. This was perhaps best-illustrated by a possession in which he was called for a silly foul at a horrible moment late in the game for trying to guard a point guard at the end of the shot clock while over 30 feet away from the basket.
South Carolina Basketball vs. Georgia Bulldogs
Thumbs Down 2: Free Throws and 3-Point Shooting
Josh Gray (0-5) and Collin Murray-Boyles (4-10) shot a combined 4-15 from the free throw line. The rest of the team shot 13-17. The combined effort was good for (bad for?) 53%.
On defense, the Gamecocks fouled far too often, allowing Georgia to get to the line for 32 free throw attempts. Yes, the officiating was bad, but Carolina earned a lot of those fouls, as well.
From outside, South Carolina basketball shot 26 times but made just 6. Had it not been for Meechie Johnson's 4-7 effort shooting the ball from the perimeter, the Gamecocks would have been an abysmal 2-19. Jacobi Wright still hasn't found his outside shot, and BJ Mack's struggles on the pick-and-pop jumper continued.
South Carolina Basketball vs. Georgia Bulldogs
Thumbs Down 3: Defensive Rebounding
With Josh Gray, Benjamin Bosmans-Verdonk, and Stephen Clark playing just 8 combined minutes, Lamont Paris deployed lineups for most of the game that were without three of their four best overall rebounders. The stats backed that up as the Gamecocks lost the rebounding battle by 9.
Each team had 19 boards in the 1st half when 6 of those 8 minutes were played. Collin Murray-Boyles and the two starting guards (Meechie Johnson and Ta'Lon Cooper) all had 4 defensive rebounds each, but the Gamecocks allowed Georgia to pull down 18 missed shots on the offensive end.