South Carolina MBB drops rivalry game to Clemson. Three takeaways from the loss
South Carolina men’s basketball traveled to Clemson on Tuesday for an annual rivalry matchup with the Tigers seeking a win that would’ve helped the Gamecocks in more ways than just bragging rights.
A win would mean the first victory for USC against a Quad 1 opponent this season — and proof the Gamecocks can win against quality opponents and on the road.
Despite a hot start from the Gamecocks (7-4), Clemson (9-3) ultimately showed why it was considered the quality opponent between the two with a 68-61 victory at Littlejohn Coliseum.
Clemson guard Ace Buckner scored a career-high 19 points, including 15 in the second half, to give the Tigers revenge after they lost to USC in Columbia. Forward Carter Welling added 15 points for Clemson, who improved to 7-0 at home.
USC, on the other hand, is still seeking evidence it’s built to beat its best opponents.
“I’m not an ‘Oh, we played hard. It must have been everything went great’ guy,” Gamecock head coach Lamont Paris said postgame. “But I only acknowledge that to our team, because I think we played harder than what we had been playing, particularly in terms of physicality on the defensive side. ... But then you have to combine that with playing a little better also, and so we didn’t do that.”
Here are three key takeaways from the Gamecocks’ rivalry loss:
Out-disciplined
Relative to Clemson, South Carolina’s offense was just a bit sloppy on Tuesday. The Tigers scored in transition after all five of USC’s turnovers in the first half while allowing only four points off their four turnovers. Clemson also outscored USC 16-14 in the paint and shot the ball at much higher efficiency.
The real issue in the first half was foul trouble. USC committed 10 fouls to Clemson’s seven, and the Tigers were able to hit four of its seven shots at the line. Five Gamecocks had three or more fouls, and junior forward Elijah Strong fouled out.
Even with the volume of fouls, Paris complimented his team’s physicality on defense.
“I‘m just waiting for the game that you can win without any level of physicality, and so that’s been a point of emphasis for us,” Paris said. “If we’re not going to do those things, we could have saved, you know, I don’t know how much it was to get the bus to come up here ... We could have saved that if you’re not going to play physical, physical basketball against these guys. It wasn’t worth coming up here for. So maybe to some level they were prepared to do that.”
Things stayed the same in the second half as USC was outshot by and turned the ball over and fouled more than the Tigers.
Drive to survive
USC has designed this year’s roster as a perimeter shooting team, but the Gamecocks were clicking best from inside early against the Tigers. USC drove to the rim on its first three possessions of the game and took a 9-2 early lead entirely from the paint.
Senior guard Mike Sharavjamts led the way inside with a team-high 13 points on 5-for-9 shooting despite going 0-for-3 on 3-point attempts. Kobe Knox tied his points total on 5-for-7 shooting and one made 3-pointers on three attempts.
“We just keep attacking the rim. Especially me, Mike, Meechie, we don’t think anybody can stay in front of us, and we just got to keep on attacking,” Knox said. “And Coach Paris keeps emphasizing us to keep attacking on the rim, because once we attack the rim, we’re going to create open more open shots for the guys.”
In too deep
The Gamecocks have relied on their bench depth heavily this season. Entering Tuesday’s game, USC had 12 of its 13 active players averaging eight or more minutes per game, with 10 averaging 10 or more minutes and six averaging 15 or more minutes per game. Seven Gamecocks average five or more points per game.
Clemson, who plays its bench for more minutes on average and has a more even points per game distribution across the roster, outclassed USC in terms of depth. The Gamecocks were outscored 41-14 off the bench in the game, and six Gamecocks finished with five or fewer points.
“That’s why we have a chance to have a good team: We have multiple guys that you hope you can go to,” said Clemson coach Brad Brownell, who improved to 8-7 all-time against the Gamecocks.
Paris said he doesn’t value bench points statistically as much as others might, but felt that missing freshman guard Eli Ellis was a factor in decreased production from his substitutes.
“It’s nice to get some punch off the bench, but my own personal view on that is, in the short term, it’s personally one of the most meaningless stats to me, comparing my bench to their bench,” Paris said. “At the end of the day, at some point, it turns out your final score versus their final score.”
“We have relied on some points from the bench. A lot of that is Eli, not only with what he scores, but he also gets a few assists every game, and then he generates offense with just his penetration and creating shots for others,” Paris said.
South Carolina men’s basketball upcoming schedule
- Monday: vs. S.C. State, 4 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)
- Tuesday, Dec. 30: vs. Albany, 6 p.m. (SEC Network)
- Saturday, Jan. 3: vs. No. 13 Vanderbilt, 2 p.m. (ESPNU)
- Tuesday, Jan. 6: at LSU, 7 p.m. (ESPNU)
This story was originally published December 16, 2025 at 9:16 PM.
