The South Carolina’s men’s basketball team opened its season with a 74-71 loss to the North Florida Ospreys Monday night at Colonial Life Arena.
The defeat marked head coach Lamont Paris’ first opening night loss at South Carolina. The loss also extends the Gamecocks’ transitive losing streak to three going back to last season’s SEC Tournament loss to then-No. 12 Auburn.
The loss is also the first-ever for the Gamecocks against the Ospreys in program history, with the only other matchup between the two coming in 2014.
Both teams’ offense struggled right out the Gate with the Gamecocks and Ospreys opening the game 2-for-6 and 2-for-7 from the field, respectively through the first media timeout. The Gamecocks offensive struggles continued as the Ospreys took its second lead of the game at 15-12 off an 8-to-2 run.
The Gamecock offense would briefly get in gear thanks in part to a 7-point run heading into the final media timeout of the first half before it took a 36-31 lead into halftime.
Senior guard Jacobi Wright was one bright spot in the otherwise stagnant opening half offense for the Gamecocks, leading the team with four assists and being one of two South Carolina players to finish the opening half shooting better than 50% from the field.
The opening stretch of the second half would prove to be foreshadowing with a quick four point run from the Ospreys, bringing North Florida within one before a Zach Davis dunk put the Gamecocks on the board in the half.
Both teams would exchange baskets throughout the opening minutes of the half, with both teams scoring 12 points each and heading into the under-12 minute media timeout. The half would remain close, with the Ospreys cutting the Gamecock lead to one with just under six minutes to go in the game.
The Ospreys would take the lead with just under 90 seconds left, extending that lead to three with 42.6 seconds on the game clock, forcing a Gamecock timeout. The Gamecocks would split a pair of free throws with 26 seconds left, followed by the Ospreys making both of its free throws to extend its lead to four with the shot clock off.
The Gamecocks would have one final chance to send it to overtime on a half-court heave from Wright that would go long, sealing the Ospreys win.
Little things go a long way
South Carolina went off to slow starts offensively in both its exhibition win over Wooster and its opening loss to North Florida. Contrasting those slow opening halves starts with simply playing better, Paris said.
“I look at some of the things that we talked about, that we just did not do,” Paris said. “And there were a lot of those things. So I think it’s that, it’s attention to detail.”
The Gamecocks were out-rebounded 43-to-37 on the night, a stat that, on the Ospreys offensive end, Paris said he wanted to know how many were long rebounds.
“You know one thing we talked about, I’d be interested (in) out of the 15 offensive rebounds, I'd check and see how many were long offensive rebounds,” Paris said. “We spent time practicing not just turning and running in there and getting the rebound because when you shoot a lot of threes there's a lot of long rebounds.”
The Ospreys also attempted 29 3-pointers on the night against the Gamecock defense.
Paris said there were plays that featured a lack of discipline throughout the night.
“I don’t think it’s a secret — my guys know that it’s my dream to go a whole season without fouling a three point shooter,” Paris said. “And we made it to game number one.”
The attention to the small details is what stood out from last season’s NCAA Tournament team, Paris said.
“That was a huge strength of last year’s team,” Paris said. “They really locked into those small details that allowed us to be much better than the ‘cellar-dwellers’ that everybody thought that group was gonna be … and the challenge will be is if I can help these guys acknowledge those things because they’re fully capable of (doing it)."
Inconsistency at the free throw line
The Gamecocks shot 14-25 from the free throw line in the loss to North Florida.
The only way to go about fixing a bad night at the line is practicing it more, Paris said.
“Some guys shoot better free throws than others, naturally,” Paris said. “Other guys can always improve by practicing. This is also a one game sample size, I mean I don't need to look but probably someone had a really bad percentage tonight and that's not what they’re gonna shoot all season.”
Despite this, there were missed opportunities at points that the team wanted back, senior guard Jamarii Thomas said.
“You just gotta step up and make them,” Thomas said. “That's all I can say – just step up and make your free throws.”
Out-hustled and outworked
Paris said he knew going into the game that North Florida was a scrappy group of players and referenced head coach Matthew Driscoll.
“This is what DNA means, and hopefully our guys will listen to this,” Paris said. “You have DNA of your program. He’s been there a long time, he’s a good coach … Their DNA is how hard they play, they competed, every loose ball they were there first. Anytime we dribbled they had two hands on it, that’s DNA."
The coaches told the team its performance on the night was ‘lackadaisical’, Wright said.
“They definitely outplayed us, outhustled us,” Wright said. “We can’t come out like that, we can't let it snowball into the next game.”
What’s next?
The Gamecocks will look to rebound from its opening night loss Friday night at Colonial Life Arena against the South Carolina State Bulldogs. Tip-off will be at 7 p.m., and the game will stream live on the SEC Network+.