South Carolina MBB drops rematch to Georgia in Athens. 3 key takeaways

Against its three home-and-home opponents in SEC play this season, South Carolina men’s basketball hasn’t fared very well.

The Gamecocks went 0-2 against Florida this season — including a Lamont Paris era-worst 47-point loss at home — and split the 2026 series with LSU. USC made the trip to Athens, Georgia, on Saturday looking for another 1-1 split with the Bulldogs, but the Gamecocks probably felt like they should’ve been playing for a sweep after blowing an 8-point lead to UGA last time around.

“This is frustrating, when you put yourself in position to win, to not win,” USC coach Paris said after the 75-70 loss to UGA on Jan. 10.

Revenge wouldn’t be in the cards Saturday afternoon, as UGA came prepared for the rematch and defeated the Gamecocks handily, 87-68. USC never led in the game, while the Bulldogs’ final lead was their largest of the night.

“We didn’t have a lot of juice defensively, especially early in the game,” Paris said.

Fought fire with fire … and lost

USC (12-17, 3-13 SEC) started off shooting the ball with much-needed efficiency Saturday. The Gamecocks made seven of their first 12 shot attempts against UGA. The hot shooting start was enough to keep USC in the game, but not enough to take the lead.

The Bulldogs (20-9, 8-8 SEC) started even hotter, making nine of their first 12 and each of their first five attempts. UGA finished the half 17 of 28 from the floor and made 10 threes in the half.

“Mike (White) is a tremendous coach, and they do some really good things, but a couple of those things, as I saw with my naked eye, we fell asleep. As a guy’s moving from the baseline to the top the key, we’re way behind for no reason,” Paris said. “There’s probably nine points in there that we just weren’t as alert as what we needed to be for whatever reason.”

USC, meanwhile, couldn’t sustain its own start. The Gamecocks made only three more shots in the half. Their 12 made free throws to UGA’s four kept the score closer than it could’ve been, but Georgia still led 48-35 at halftime.

Part of what ailed the Gamecocks’ shooting late in the first half was poor spacing. Oftentimes USC players were bunched in groups of two or three with nobody moving to an open spot. This made UGA’s defense — which relied on picking up USC ball handlers full court and chasing shooters off the 3-point line — much easier to execute as the half went on.

USC again started hot in the second half, making 50% of its first 12 shots and going on an 8-0 run to bring the deficit within five points — but the Gamecocks, again, could not sustain their offense. They made just one of their next eight shots and UGA never relinquished its lead.

The Bulldogs finished with 12 made threes to USC’s six.

Foul trouble freezes Elijah Strong

Elijah Strong, the Gamecocks’ second-leading scorer in SEC play, has been USC’s saving grace in multiple games this season. He was just another obstacle in the first half against UGA.

Strong made just one basket in the first half and began shouting toward a UGA defender afterward. He was hit with a technical foul, his third personal foul of the game, which forced him to sit for the remaining 10 minutes of the half.

“He’s got a really good feel for what we’re trying to get out of the offense and gets some of the actions started with his decisions,” Paris said. “That made it a little choppier, but some of that was also on him and the decision to pick up a technical foul … there’s no defense of that.”

The missing first half probably didn’t help Strong find his rhythm as he finished with four points on 2-of-7 shooting.

Second chances pointless

In many of USC’s losses this season, a big limiting factor for the Gamecocks has been size and offensive rebounding. Almost every SEC roster is bigger than USC’s, and it’s rare for the Gamecocks to emerge from a game leading on the offensive glass.

So after the Gamecocks outrebounded UGA 15-4 on the offensive glass Saturday, enough for their most offensive rebounds in a game this season, it’s not crazy to wonder why it didn’t help much.

The answer likely comes down to second-chance points. Yes, offensive rebounding matters, but taking advantage of the extra possession is just as important. USC couldn’t finish the job against the Bulldogs, outscoring UGA by only nine second-chance points despite grabbing 11 more offensive rebounds.

UGA blocked eight USC shots in the game.

“This is not the only game we haven’t finished around the basket, but I did think we had some opportunities right at the rim, some of which ended up being blocked or altered by guys,” Paris said. “When I look at it, those are decisions. A shot blocker’s there, I have to make a better decision to pass it somewhere.”

While you can’t expect to be perfect on second-chance attempts, the seven or so offensive rebounds USC didn’t score a basket on could’ve made up for some of the 19-point margin of defeat. UGA still outscored USC 40-28 in the paint despite falling behind on the offensive glass.

South Carolina men’s basketball remaining schedule

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

This story was originally published February 28, 2026 at 5:57 PM.