South Carolina MBB falls to Alabama in sixth straight loss. What we saw

Wading through a five-game losing streak and staring down seven remaining SEC games in the 2026 regular season, no other opponent than Alabama could have made it more clear: South Carolina men’s basketball’s challenging year had no intentions of letting up down the stretch.

USC took a trip to Tuscaloosa on Saturday night for a Valentine’s Day showdown with the Crimson Tide. The Gamecocks tried to keep up with Alabama’s SEC-leading offensive firepower, but ultimately they got burned and fell 89-75.

“We had it down to seven with a wide open three to cut it to four, and who knows what happens in this building, how the fans react to that? Who knows how the players, who I’m sure expected to win the game, who knows how they react when they look up and with under eight minutes left, ‘Dang. It’s a four point game, guys,’” USC coach Lamont Paris told the Gamecock Sports Network’s Derek Scott and Casey Manning postgame. “What’s that look like for us? It’s a make or miss, oftentimes, league.”

Here are three takeaways from the loss:

Can’t keep pace

Part of what makes Alabama (18-7, 8-4 SEC) such a challenge for USC — or any SEC opponent, for that matter — is that the Crimson Tide simply plays faster and scores more than any other team. Alabama leads the conference with 91.9 points per game while shooting and making the most threes in the SEC.

Sound familiar? Paris talked at length in the preseason about how the Gamecocks (11-14, 2-10 SEC) planned to rely on threes this season. It hasn’t worked out that way.

USC certainly shoots threes, averaging an SEC sixth-most 25.6 attempts from beyond the arc. It shot 28 3-point attempts against Alabama.

The problem arises when it comes time to make those threes. USC entered the game shooting 30.9% this season, third worst in the SEC. The Gamecocks shot 25% from beyond the arc in Saturday’s loss.

USC tried to keep pace with Alabama and found some early success, even going on a 10-0 run to take a 15-13 lead early in the first half, but the Crimson Tide was ultimately more equipped to shoot a high volume with high efficiency. Alabama finished shooting 41.2% on 34 3-point attempts. The Gamecocks trailed 45-32 at halftime.

The Gamecocks showed some life late in the game with a 9-0 run and 24 second-half points from sixth-year senior guard Meechie Johnson that brought USC back within seven points. The Gamecocks were only outscored 44-43 in the second half, but the lull in the first made the deficit too much to overcome.

“There was a stretch, not a long one, where we had some long faces,” Paris said. “Guys wear their emotions on their sleeves, and so, as you’re trying to rally them back up, I thought that we did a really good job of making a couple of plays, realizing where we were and what our opportunity still was, and then we fought and made plays.”

Adjusted rotations

Through a rocky SEC slate, Paris has been pretty steady with his lineups. He didn’t make a starting lineup change until USC’s Feb. 3 loss at Texas, when he swapped junior forward Elijah Strong for freshman EJ Walker.

Walker averaged four points and 3.5 assists in his two starts, but Paris chose to put Strong back in the lineup vs. Alabama. Strong finished with four points and two rebounds in 12 minutes.

Also getting some unusual minutes was senior UC San Diego transfer Nordin Kapic. Prior to Saturday’s loss, Kapic had played in three SEC games and recorded 10 minutes across all three. He played 11 minutes against the Crimson Tide, finishing with two points.

Guard trio leads the way

Alabama had the biggest name between the two backcourts in Saturday’s game in National Player of the Year candidate Labaron Philon Jr. The sophomore played to his standard, finishing with 19 points, but USC’s guard trio was up for the challenge.

Johnson, as well as senior guards Kobe Knox and Mike Sharavjamnts, combined for 61 points. Knox recorded a new season high of 21 points with six rebounds and six assists. Knox fouled out in the closing seconds of the game.

Unfortunately for the guard trio, they didn’t get any help on offense. No other USC player scored more than five points.

“We could have played better at times, and against a good team, in order to win on the road like this, you have to do that,” Paris said. “We just came up short in terms of a couple crunch-time moments that we just didn’t play quite as well.”

South Carolina men’s basketball schedule

• 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)
• Saturday, Feb. 28: at Georgia, 3:30 p.m. (SEC Network)

This story was originally published February 14, 2026 at 10:36 PM.