The South Carolina men’s basketball team (8-12, 1-6 SEC) suffered its sixth conference loss Wednesday against Florida (12-8, 5-3 SEC) by a score of 81-60.
The Gamecocks struggled to keep possession of the ball, committing 15 turnovers. However, turnovers were not the only woeful part of South Carolina’s play. The Gamecocks shot 37% from the field, while Florida shot 47%.
South Carolina struggled especially in the first half, committing nine of their turnovers in the first 20 minutes of play.
"We couldn't keep pace with not only not defending at the level that we wanted to, but then also we were still struggling to put the ball in the basket," head coach Lamont Paris said.
The lone bright spot in the first half for South Carolina was their rebound advantage. The Gamecocks posted outrebounded the Gators 22-16 in the first half. Ultimately, they could not convert those extra possessions into points as they stumbled into halftime trailing 34-26.
"We did enough in the first half, defensively, to be at an 8-point deficit," Paris said. "(The team) didn't play well offensively, but I thought we got a couple things done defensively in the first half. And then in the second half, we just weren't able to sustain that."
The Gamecocks struggles spilled over into the second half, where Florida quickly extended their lead from 8 to 14 points in under three minutes.
The standout for South Carolina's offense was again freshman forward GG Jackson. Jackson had a double-double, which saw him score 20 points and collect 10 rebounds.
Joining him with a double-double was junior forward Josh Gray, who added 13 rebounds to an 11-point performance off the bench for his first double-digit scoring outing on the season.
However, Jackson's and Gray's individual performances did little to calm overall frustration. Freshman guard Zachary Davis was given a flagrant two foul for elbowing Florida guard Niels Lane in the chin after a rebound, disqualifying him from the game.
"That's not like Zach," Paris said. "That's a misrepresentation of who he is as a person, certainly as a player. He got caught up in the moment, felt like maybe he had gotten fouled, and that was retaliatory."
Graduate forward Hayden Brown also had to leave the game early, committing five fouls in just nine minutes of play.
Overall, Jackson, Gray and senior guard Chico Carter Jr. accounted for 43 of the Gamecocks' 60 points.
South Carolina returns to the court on Saturday, Jan. 28 against Georgia at Stegeman Coliseum in Athens, Georgia. The game will air on the SEC Network.