Hot-shooting Auburn snaps South Carolina MBB win streak. What went wrong for Gamecocks
There was no love for the Gamecocks inside Neville Arena.
Frustrations flared as nothing went right for South Carolina, despite Meechie Johnson, Collin Murray-Boyles and BJ Mack all scoring over 14 points. The Tigers were on a mission to be heartbreakers on Valentine’s Day, and they did just that Wednesday night against the Gamecocks (21-4, 9-3 SEC).
No. 11 South Carolina’s seven-game win streak ended on the road against No. 13 Auburn in a 101-61 loss. It was the Gamecocks’ first loss in nearly a month, and just the fourth loss this year.
Auburn goes big at home
There’s a reason Auburn is undefeated at home this season: The Jungle is no joke. The Tigers are not only perfect, but dominant in front of their fans. Auburn has won every home game by double digits this season and by an average of 20.5 points, and 18.6 points in SEC play.
South Carolina struggled to get consistent looks the entire night, turning the ball over six times in the first half.
Auburn was shooting 63% from the arc and 64% from the field at halftime, while USC was shooting just half of that. The Tigers had no problem running up the scoreboard with their three 8-0 scoring runs throughout the first half, and what was a massive missing factor, was holding the Gamecocks to 1 bench point for the entire game.
Jaylin Williams and Johni Broome led the Tigers to their 13th home win, scoring a combined 44 points and shooting 16-for-26 from the field. Every contested shot, Auburn found a way to knock it down. If there was an open triple available, the Tigers took it.
While South Carolina has done well against high-scoring offenses this year, there was no stopping Auburn on Wednesday night.
Nothing sweet happening in Alabama
Of South Carolina’s four losses this season, two of them have been on the road in the state of Alabama. It’s been a month since the Gamecocks dropped their last game, and both Wednesday’s loss against the Tigers and the Jan. 9 loss at Alabama were similar games.
Both were blowout losses, both had some of USC’s worst shooting nights in conference play and both were against the top teams in the SEC.
The good news: South Carolina won’t travel to the state the rest of the season. The bad news is USC might see either Alabama or Auburn again come the SEC Tournament in March. Neither SEC program in the state has made things easy, and the pair have figured out how to use South Carolina’s slow-paced offense to their benefit.
SEC standings shake up
This one was an important game, for both South Carolina and Auburn. There are long-term implications with the loss, including the SEC standings.
Alabama remains first in the SEC, since it only has two conference losses so far. The Crimson Tide are in the midst of their SEC bye week, so Alabama will hold on to the No. 1 seed at least for the rest of this week.
Auburn’s victory puts it tied for second in the conference with South Carolina, but the Tigers now hold the head-to-head tiebreaker.
For SEC tournament seeding, that makes USC the No. 3 seed if the tournament started this weekend. Tennessee would be the No. 4 seed, followed by Florida at No. 5.
This is also USC’s third Quad 1 loss this season, and the Gamecocks are now 3-3. While a win inside The Jungle would’ve been monumental for South Carolina’s resume come Selection Sunday, the Gamecocks have built themselves a strong enough slate where this road loss shouldn’t change their chances of getting into the tournament.
Next four games
Feb. 17 vs. LSU, 3:30 p.m. (SEC Network)
Feb. 24 at Ole Miss, 3:30 p.m. (SEC Network)
Feb. 28 at Texas A&M, 8:30 p.m. (SEC Network)
March 2 vs. Florida, 1 p.m. (SEC Network)
