South Carolina basketball drops road game vs. No. 12 Florida. 3 things we saw

No matter what happened, South Carolina men’s basketball couldn’t repeat its last matchup with the Florida Gators.

Just over a month ago, the defending national champions handed USC a 47-point loss, the largest margin of defeat under Gamecocks coach Lamont Paris. It was the second loss in what had grown into a six-game losing streak for USC by the time it arrived in Gainesville on Tuesday for its rematch with Florida.

“It was a conglomeration of so many different things happening (last game against Florida). They were better than us. They also played better than us. Those are two different things,” Paris said. “It got to a certain point where our fight wasn’t where it needed to be. .... This is just a new game, different day.”

While comparing losses might feel like an exercise in futility, USC’s 76-62 defeat at the hands of No. 12 Florida probably stings the Gamecocks a little bit less than the last time.

Kept it closer

In the previous first half USC (11-15, 2-11 SEC) played against the Gators, the Gamecocks headed to the locker room already down 28 points. Florida’s 48 first-half points matched USC’s total points at the end of the game.

So keeping the deficit to 10 at the half this time was an improvement. The Gamecocks even held Florida without a field goal for five minutes late in the half, and USC made its last three attempts of the half to cut away at a once 14-point lead.

“There were, again, some things that we did (last time) that I thought were good,” Paris said. “It’s actually why we started the game with the same game plan defensively in this game, which I thought we ultimately did a good job of again.”

The two squads took different approaches to their points distribution. Seven Florida players scored in the first half, but only one Gator — forward Rueben Chinyelu — made it to double-digit points.

USC, meanwhile, had the same number of scorers, but only three made more than one basket in the half. Sixth-year senior guard Meechie Johnson led all scorers with 12 points in the first half.

Florida’s largest lead in the game was 22 points.

Desperate for size

After a national championship run led by three now-NBA guards, Florida (20-6, 11-2 SEC) came back for the 2025-26 season led by its front court of Chinyelu, Alex Condon and Thomas Haugh. In all, the Gators’ roster features five players listed 6-foot-10 or taller, tied for the most in the SEC.

Meanwhile, USC has been dominated in the paint all season while its two 7-footers — Christ Essandoko and Jordan Butler — have played in five and six of USC’s 12 conference games, respectively, combining for 15 minutes per game in that span.

So when Paris does choose to put one of his big men on the floor, it seems to be for the purpose of size and size alone.

Essandoko played 14 minutes against Florida, the first time he’d seen the court since Feb. 3 at Texas. He finished with six points and three rebounds. Butler didn’t play. USC was outscored 44-28 by Florida in the paint.

Chinyelu finished the game with 15 points and 17 rebounds.

“He’s really big, strong, athletic, agile. He’s got a good, soft touch for a guy his size. He’s got a motor, which is certainly a skill these days,” Paris said of Chinyelu. “It appears to be a winning guy. I don’t know him like that, so I don’t want to evaluate that really, but that’s what it appears from the outside.”

Sluggish second half

After showing some semblance of fight in the first half, the Gamecocks never seemed to find a similar stride following the break.

It wasn’t a matter of missing shots — USC shot 40.7% in the second half, an improvement from the 35.5% rate in the first half — it was more about the lack of shot attempts at all. As Florida squeezed out the Gamecocks, USC got just 27 shots up this second half after putting up 31 attempts in the opening.

“That’s probably some of those long possessions which, which they don’t have a lot of long possessions offensively,” Paris said. “They probably had more long possessions with some of the effort in what we were doing defensively at times. I thought we did a good job. Some of that put us in bad position for rebounding, to get the initial attacks stopped.”

Johnson, who led USC with 22 points by the final buzzer, scored 10 second-half points. Only two other Gamecocks had more than five points, and five USC players who touched the floor scored zero points in the second half.

South Carolina men’s basketball remaining schedule

• 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)
• Tuesday, March 3: vs. Tennessee, 6 p.m. (SEC Network)
• Saturday, March 7: at Mississippi, 1 p.m. (SEC Network)

This story was originally published February 17, 2026 at 9:17 PM.