South Carolina men’s basketball drops home finale to Georgia. 3 quick observations
The Gamecocks’ home finale came full circle — and not in a good way.
That’s because South Carolina’s season at Colonial Life Arena ended exactly where it started: on the wrong side of the scoreboard. The Gamecocks (12-18, 2-15 SEC) wrapped up their home slate with a 73-64 loss to Georgia on Tuesday night.
The Bulldogs (19-11, 7-10 SEC) led wire to wire, building a cushion as large as 14 points. Georgia shot 48% overall from the field, while USC shot 37%.
With the loss, USC is officially locked into the bottom spot in the conference and will face the No. 9 seed in the SEC Tournament.
South Carolina’s Collin Murray-Boyles led all scorers with 24 points and five rebounds, his fourth-straight game of 20 or more points. Nick Pringle added 11 points.
Deja vu: a quick start by UGA
If there were a script for South Carolina’s struggles this season, Georgia didn’t bother rewriting it. As have many opponents this year, the Bulldogs got off to a quick start.
The Bulldogs opened on a 6-0 run and drilled 10 of their first 14 shots (71.4%), sprinting to a 24-14 lead. Meanwhile, USC’s offense was in neutral, missing its first five shots and failing to connect on consecutive buckets more than twice in the opening half.
Georgia capitalized, shooting 53% from the field in taking a 40-29 halftime lead, while the Gamecocks straggled along at 34%.
“I think our general activity and energy could have been a little bit better in the first half,” USC head coach Lamont Paris said. “But I’m also realistic — they had some guys make some hard shots.”
USC fought ‘til the end
If there’s one thing this South Carolina team has done at home, it’s make things interesting. The Gamecocks stormed out of the locker room with back-to-back 3-pointers from Murray-Boyles and Jamarii Thomas, trimming the deficit to five.
“I thought we were better defensively in the second half,” Paris said. “It’s hard. Our recipe for winning typically doesn’t involve 40 points in a half. I don’t know many people’s does, but ours certainly does not. We dug a hole that way, and thought the guys did a good job fighting in the second half.”
They outscored Georgia 12-4 over the first seven minutes of the second half, breathing life into the crowd. But like other rallies this season, it didn’t last. The Bulldogs regrouped, scoring five points in regaining a comfortable eight-point lead.
USC strung together a 6-0 run with a Morris Ugusuk 3-pointer and a Pringle and-one score. That made it a two-score game for the first time since the opening score of the game. Georgia, though, again snuffed out the comeback effort, this time with an 8-0 run, which included back-to-back 3-pointers by Blue Cain.
From there, USC kept trimming into the lead with free throws and defense, forcing the Bulldogs into four straight misses down the stretch. Another Ugusuk 3-pointer and an alley-oop dunk by Pringle trimmed the lead to four with 1 minute, 33 seconds left.
But for all of that fight, it didn’t materialize into a win, as the Gamecocks ran out of time on the scoreboard.
Senior send-off
Tuesday wasn’t just the home finale — it was also Senior Night, a chance for the Gamecocks to honor the players who’ve put in their time in the garnet and black.
Jacobi Wright, the team’s longest-tenured player, received recognition alongside fellow seniors Jamarii Thomas, Nick Pringle, Myles Stute and Benjamin Bosmans-Verdonk before the game.
Upcoming games
- Saturday: at Tennessee, 2 p.m. (SEC Network)
- March 12: SEC Tournament game, details TBD
This story was originally published March 4, 2025 at 8:06 PM.
