South Carolina suffered its sixth consecutive defeat on Wednesday night, a final score of 69-48 on the road against the state of Mississippi. Gamecocks (5-12, 3-10) hit just 29 percent (18 of 62) against Bulldogs and failed to score at least 50 points for the first time this season.
Junior guard AJ Lawson, the SEC’s top scorer in conference games (19.4 ppg) was held to 10 points out of 4 out of 12 shots. His 3.1 of three points per game led to the league’s entry on Wednesday, but he hit just 1 in 6 at the Humphrey Coliseum.
“Basketball is not rocket science”, head coach Frank Martin said postgame. “When you shoot 29 percent of the field on the road at the SEC, you are not winning. We have open shots. You cannot do all of them, but you have to do some. We never do any. If we are not going to do open kicks, it will be difficult to win.
“We transformed them 21 times and only converted it to 12 points. We only had four quick break points. If we don’t score on the open court, we will have to deal with their size in the midfield. That means you have to make jumps. If they don’t they’re coming out of the painting, it’s very difficult to make an offensive rebound or score on the edge above their size. The same thing happened the first time we played, in the second half, and it was very similar here today.
The Gamecocks were completely defeated in the paint, recovering 49-24 with just nine offensive rebounds for four seconds of chance. The Bulldogs scored 38 points in the painting compared to the 20 Gamecocks.
“I was never on a team that was hit by 25,” said Martin. “You don’t get off the rebound for 25 and say you played physically. I don’t care how big they are. My teams have always played with that physicality and suddenly we have no physicality. It is very disappointing. “
In addition to the junior guard Alanzo Frink, who is out of season due to an undisclosed medical condition, the Gamecocks squad features 11 players who were on the team last season, a campaign that ended with Carolina competing to be in the postseason for the SEC Tournament. A few weeks after a year later, the team is at the end of the SEC.
“The staff was good enough last year and now it’s been a struggle,” said Martin. “The owner has been a problem for this team all year. When you lose, you have to fight and you cannot accept. Three weeks ago, we were leaving that victory in Florida and we had beaten Georgia very well. We had some tough defeats at home and now we have a lot of voices and little substance. Losing is something you have to fight. At times like this, the leadership has to show their face very strongly. That’s what I learned in my first year here. We are currently looking for that. Keyshawn (Bryant) is trying, but not many guys are helping him from that point of view ”.
A parallel story about the trip to Starkville, Miss. It was the initial owner Seventh woods and reserve the second year guard Trae Hannibal did not make the trip with the team. Martin pointed to an undisclosed injury to Woods, while Hannibal was kept off the court by Martin.
“I just gave him a day off,” said Martin of Hannibal. “I gave him a day off. It has been a difficult year, a difficult time and a difficult stretch. I just gave him a day off. … I’m not going into details about me and a basketball player on my team. I’m not talking about my private relationship with players. It was a very difficult year for everyone. I gave him a day off. “
Hannibal played in all 16 games before Wednesday’s competition. The former Hartsville signer averages 14.8 minutes, 5.6 points and 2.5 rebounds per game.
Second year guard Jermaine Couisnard returned to action after losing the last two games due to an ankle injury. In 20 minutes played off the bench, the first game that did not start this season, he scored four points (1 of 8) with a rebound and an assist. Second year guard TJ Moss got the first start of the season and scored seven points with four assists and four turns in 26 minutes played.
The team returns to Columbia for a few days before hitting the road to face Georgia at 1 pm on the SEC Network.