The South Carolina basketball season ended Thursday in the 2nd round of the SEC Tournament.
The 2020-21 season officially came to an end on Thursday night for the Gamecocks, with the South Carolina basketball team losing a second round game to Ole Miss in the SEC Tournament. The 76-59 defeat was reminiscent of how the team has played in recent weeks, with the attack struggling to score, and the defense game lacking in physicality.
Gamecocks fired only 35.6% of the field, including a 2-to-11 performance on three-point terrain. Big boys Wildens Leveque and Jalyn McCreary scored 14 and 15 points, respectively, but the South Carolina guards failed to convert the shots into a jump. Ole Miss overcame the Gamecocks by 26-11 in the last 10 minutes of the first half to build a 41-26 lead at halftime.
Frank Martin’s group never recovered, playing ketchup in the second period and failing to reduce the rebels’ advantage to less than nine.
Here’s what the head coach said about the defeat.
“We were bitten by the same insect that stung us all year. We were not physical enough and offensively you need to score. We managed to score from our giants and we got nothing from our guards. If you can’t jump, you can’t reach the line and you can’t make layups, it will be difficult to defeat a team like Ole Miss, who has some really aggressive scoring guards. “
The Gamecocks entered the game shorthanded, with three games missing from the lineup. Keyshawn Bryant, Jermaine Couisnard and Seventh Woods did not dress, and it impacted the game tremendously.
Bryant was the team’s top scorer in the SEC game, having achieved double digits in 13 of the conference’s 15 games. The absence of Couisnard and Woods forced TJ Moss and Trae Hannibal to prolong the minutes. The two combined for 13 points out of 5 out of 17 shots, with each seeing the ground for at least 28 minutes.
AJ Lawson also struggled to score, making just three of his 12 attempts and hitting 1 to 5 beyond the hoop.
The defeat was the team’s ninth in 10 games, with seven of those decisions reaching double digits. This left Frank Martin’s future in Columbia a little hazy. Many fans are calling for the separation of the two parties, but there is certainly the possibility of a comeback after what was perhaps the most tiring season in the program’s history.
“This year has been ridiculously draining for our players, both mentally and physically. (They) were locked up in an apartment for seven weeks. I don’t know why this is so difficult to understand … If you mean that I trained poorly, feel free, but to say that this season was disappointing after what our players have been through this year, that is sad. “
Martin and the Gamecocks will soon know where they are in relation to the next season, but many around the show are happy to finally leave this year behind.