USC MBB drops fifth straight SEC game in loss to Missouri. What we saw

There was a chance. Even Vegas thought so.

According to the VegasInsider consensus line that factors in multiple sportsbooks, South Carolina men’s basketball opened as a 1.5-point favorite for its matchup Saturday against Missouri — the first time the Gamecocks had been favored in an SEC game this season. The line would move to -3.5 in favor of the Tigers by tipoff. Still, there was a chance.

That chance became a little more real when the Gamecocks trailed by four points at halftime despite shooting well below average and once trailing by double digits.

Ultimately, USC didn’t give itself a chance in the second half, and Missouri covered the spread easily, taking a 78-59 win over the Gamecocks. USC never led in the game.

“As the clock kept ticking, it just seemed like guys got a little more impatient on both sides of the ball, didn’t make some plays, and so the result ended up the way it was,” South Carolina coach Lamont Paris said.

Uninspired start

Missouri (16-7, 6-4 SEC), like much of the SEC, outmatches USC’s roster in size and planned to take advantage. The Tigers ran multiple plays in the first half in the formation often called “four-down,” where four of the five players on the court hang around the baseline and crash the glass after a shot.

The plan worked out of the gate, and led the Tigers to a 27-15 lead in rebounds and an 11-4 lead in second-chance points in the first half. The Tigers’ paint touches also led to 16 free throws in the first half, of which they made 12. Missouri jumped out to a 21-8 lead in the first 10 minutes of the game.

“I don’t know that we have a healthy enough fear of what giving up rebounds does to the overall chances of winning the game,” Paris said. “It sounds good. You can write it on a piece of paper and say, ‘Hey, I agree with that. If we give up offensive rebounds, we probably won’t win as much.’ But do you fear it? Is there a healthy fear of what that really means, which is going to make you do things that are seemingly supernatural to yourself?”

The Gamecocks (11-13, 2-9 SEC) pulled back within 34-30 by the end of the half, but not without help from their opponent. Missouri had a scoreless stretch of four minutes in the half and made two of its final 10 shots.

Without Mizzou’s sluggish finish, USC’s 31.3% field-goal percentage and 1 for 11 on 3-point shooting in the first half probably wouldn’t have made up the difference alone. The Gamecocks’ final 3-point shooting split (13.6%) flirted with the season-low 13% they shot in a 71-55 win against The Citadel on Dec. 13.

Self-destructive finish

Any hope USC built up the first half was quickly dashed in the second. The Tigers racked up a new largest lead of 14 points with 12 minutes left and never let the deficit shrink below seven points.

For one, Missouri quickly got back to its inside game. The Tigers scored 13 of their first 16 points in the first half from inside the 3-point line and led the half in rebounding once again.

“It wasn’t nothing that South Carolina did wrong. It was everything our guys did right,” Missouri coach Dennis Gates said. “So, credit our guys, credit the game plan, credit our staff, but that’s a tough team.”

But USC, and USC alone, was the reason Missouri ran away with the game after halftime.

The Gamecocks continued their seemingly season-long cold shooting stretch, going 7 for 23 from the floor and 2 for 11 from beyond the arc in the second half. They also missed five free throws after going perfect from the line in the first half.

Off game for Meechie Johnson

Johnson, USC’s points, assists and steals leader this season, has been doing what he can to keep USC afloat in conference play. He’s averaging 19.7 points and 5.2 assists per game since the SEC schedule began, above his 16.5 and 4.3 total season averages.

In USC’s last outing, an 84-75 loss at Texas on Feb. 3, Johnson dropped a career-high 35 points and became the first South Carolina player to record multiple 30-plus-point games in a season since Sindarius Thornwell in 2016-17.

Saturday’s game wasn’t as memorable for Johnson. He finished with 13 points — still a team-high — on 2-of-13 shooting in 33 minutes. He had six points with 10 minutes left in the game.

“We do tell him keep shooting,” USC senior guard Kobe Knox said. “We all know Meechie can get hot any second, but we’ve got to help him along, too. We’ve got to make shots too, and hopefully it spreads once guys make shots.”

South Carolina men’s basketball upcoming schedule

• Saturday, Feb. 14: at Alabama, 8:30 p.m. (SEC Network)
• Tuesday, Feb. 17: at Florida, 7 p.m. (SEC Network)
• Saturday, Feb. 21: vs. Mississippi State, 1 p.m. (SEC Network)
• Tuesday, Feb. 24: vs. Kentucky, 7 p.m. (SEC Network)

This story was originally published February 7, 2026 at 3:05 PM.