South Carolina MBB swept by Georgia in home-and-home series. Lamont Paris reacts

South Carolina men’s basketball hit the road for Athens, Georgia, on Saturday afternoon for an SEC matchup against the Georgia Bulldogs. The Gamecocks were on the hunt to redeem a 75-70 loss at home to UGA on Jan. 10, where they once led by eight points with less than nine minutes left in the game.

But the Bulldogs wouldn’t allow any redemption, throttling the Gamecocks 87-68. UGA made 12 threes to USC’s six and outscored the Gamecocks 40-28 in the paint.

Here’s what USC coach Lamont Paris had to say after the game:

Opening statement

Paris said he thought his team lacked “juice” on the defensive end against UGA but did well to withstand the offensive onslaught as much as it could even without making the needed defensive stops.

“I thought we did a good job withstanding the barrage that took place early on in the game. They made everything from beyond the arc specifically. We did a good job withstanding that. We fought back at the end of the half.”

He went on to explain a key moment in the game that could have kept the score closer at halftime while chalking up the second half to a poor performance by his team.

“There was a dead-ball foul. We were going to the free-throw line with a chance to cut it to seven. It was less than a minute, so you’re probably, naturally, going to get a two-for-one. So if you can go seven, get a stop and score again, you’re at five or four going into the half and feeling really good after the way that they shot the ball,” Paris said. “Instead we missed both free throws. We didn’t match up at the free-throw line, which yielded a quick three, and then they flipped and got a two-for-one when we were supposed to have the two-for-one. … In the second half, we just didn’t play great.”

Outshot

Georgia outshot the Gamecocks all night, and while Paris gave credit to what UGA coach Mike White was able to draw up on offense, he also said the Bulldogs got some free points because of USC’s lack of alertness on defense.

“Mike 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 of 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 was able to slow down the Bulldogs in the second half, holding UGA to a 2-for-13 clip from behind the arc.

“Some of it was they didn’t shoot as well, in part. I think we were a little more alert in some of these situations. We also changed the ball screen coverage at one point, which provided slightly less rotations, a little more switching,” Paris said. “Some of their threes had come off rotations too, they did a good job adjusting to what we were doing.”

Won the rebound battle, lost the war

USC picked up a rare win in the rebound battle Saturday, grabbing seven more rebounds and outperforming UGA 15-4 on the offensive glass. Despite the advantage, USC scored only 15 second-chance points to UGA’s six and was outscored 40-28 in the paint. UGA also blocked eight USC shots.

Paris said he thinks his team’s lack of success on second-chance opportunities had to do with decision making rather than making shots.

“It wasn’t a great day for us in general offensively. They were switching a lot of stuff and then crowding the paint. When people do that, there’s a couple of things. One is you’re going to get some threes. Some of the supporting cast is going to get some threes, and we didn’t make those at a high clip, but also around the basket,” Paris said. “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. When I look at it, those are decisions. A shot blocker’s there, I have to make a better decision to pass it somewhere.”

Elijah Strong limited by foul trouble

USC has relied heavily on Elijah Strong to carry some of the offensive load. The junior forward entered Saturday’s game tied for the second-highest scoring average on the team since SEC play began.

Strong’s offensive game seems to rely on getting into an early rhythm, which he didn’t allow himself to do against UGA. He was benched for the remainder of the first half after picking a technical foul — and his third personal foul — roughly 10 minutes into the game.

The Boston College transfer finished the night with four points on 2-of-7 shooting.

“When he plays well offensively, we‘ve won. He hasn’t been consistent in his overall performance, but he brings a lot of things to the table offensively that don’t have to do with shot making. 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. So there’s merit for him offensively, but that made it a little choppier, but some of that was also on him and the decision to pick up a technical foul, which was their third foul,” Paris said. “There’s no defense of that, personally. You have to accept the fact that that’s what happened.”

“I’ll have to watch it again, but I know that he was pretty demonstrative, it seemed to me, so I’m not questioning whether or not they should have called a technical foul, but certainly that can have an effect on what your rhythm looks like and whatnot, but it’s a game of control of your emotions. Certainly you have to play with emotion, but you have to control those emotions,” Paris said.

This story was originally published February 28, 2026 at 7:07 PM.