The South Carolina men’s basketball team lost 74-69 in a tough matchup against the Georgia Bulldogs, falling to 2-2 in SEC play.
The first half was a close back-and-forth contest. The largest lead of the half belonged to South Carolina by just 6 points. Both teams struggled to find the basket early on and shot a combined five for 22 from behind the arc in the first 20 minutes of play.
A big difference-maker in this contest was free throws.
South Carolina struggled from the charity stripe, shooting an underwhelming 17 of 32 overall. Georgia took advantage of its free shots, making 25 of 32 attempts for the whole game.
“We didn't play great. I don't want to take anything away from Georgia. They have a good team," head coach Lamont Paris said. "There's no doubt about it, but we also didn't play great."
Down the stretch, the Gamecocks couldn’t keep the Bulldogs away from the free-throw line. The second half of the game seemed to be filled with free throws, as Georgia made 20 of its 25 free throws in the latter half of the matchup.
South Carolina's struggles were not isolated to free throw attempts. The team finished the game shooting 23 of 58 from the field and six of 26 from the 3-point line.
"Just an off night, shots wasn't falling," junior guard Meechie Johnson said. "We got to get back in the lab and get back to shooting and hope they go in.”
Johnson had a team-high 19 points from 4-7 shooting from behind the arc.
But the South Carolina defense made a solid effort, as it had a season-high eight blocks. Four of them came from freshman forward Collin Murray-Boyles, who recorded his second career start against Georgia.
The Gamecocks also held the Bulldogs to just 23 completions on 61 attempts in shooting from the field.
The defense did show a weak spot despite its efforts, though, allowing Georgia to bring down 18 offensive rebounds, which led to 17 second-chance points for the Bulldogs.
“That’s where it really hurt us," graduate student forward B.J. Mack said. "We got to do better with boxing out, and we will do better with that starting next game."
Mack had 16 points and only one turnover. He joined Johnson as the only two Gamecocks to score in the double-digit points.
"We didn't deserve to be where we were in the game down the stretch to be 100% honest with you," Paris said. "A litany of just lack of discipline type plays just was there for us, and then you throw on top of that, we just didn't perform very well either.”
South Carolina's starting guard, junior Myles Stute, who averages 9.9 points on the year, got injured in the second half and did not return to the contest.
"He's going to get an MRI on his shoulder tomorrow," Paris said. "I know he's in a lot of pain right now, but we'll get more information tomorrow."
Missing Stute and unable to overcome its free throw shooting struggles, the Gamecocks will look to bounce back on Saturday when the team takes on Arkansas in Fayetteville at 1 p.m. The game will be broadcasted on SEC Network.