FINAL: Gamecocks Get Humbled By Auburn In 101-61 Blowout Loss

South Carolina's men's basketball team suffered their first defeat in almost a month on Wednesday night versus the Auburn Tigers.

Coming into tonight's game against the Auburn Tigers, many basketball pundits pointed to the tremendous success that Auburn had had in Neville Arena, known as 'The Jungle', as reason to believe that South Carolina would drop their first game since January 16th. Unfortunately for Lamont Paris and the Gamecocks, this notion ringed true to the -enth degree on Wednesday night.

In the first three minutes and twelve seconds of action, Carolina got off to about as good of a start as you could ask for in this kind of matchup, building a 9-4 lead thanks to a three from both Meechie Johnson and BJ Mack. Things would then fall apart very quickly for the Gamecocks who, on the ensuing defensive possession would give up two offensive rebounds to the Tigers, which subsequently led to a made three-pointer from Jaylin Williams. That sequence of events wound up being a sign of things to come for the rest of the half.

Williams who had come into this game shooting 26.3 percent (5 of 19 from three) in his last six games, caught fire from deep, hitting four of his first shots from behind the arc, the most he had hit in one game all season. Along with this, the Gamecocks fell asleep on multiple on and off-ball screens, leading to multiple easy looks for Auburn. On the other end of the floor, Carolina couldn't create much of any open shots for themselves due to a lack of intentional off-ball movement, and in plenty of moments simply got the ball back to Meechie Johnson with little time on the shot clock, hoping he could make something out of very little.

This led to a 50-28 halftime lead for Auburn, and the Gamecocks, due to their slow-pace play style, pretty much being out of the game and having to approach the second half in a different way. BJ Mack got the ball on the low block a lot more in the final 20 minutes and made some things happen, getting to the foul line several times and hitting all six free throw attempts in the process.

Collin Murray-Boyles also showed great poise on offense, getting himself in good position more often than not, and while not being in an advantageous position at certain points defensively, will get better with more experience. Meechie Johnson also showed some aggression, but Carolina will need to regroup before they play LSU on Saturday.

You Might Also Like:

• Bruce Pearl Talks Job Lamont Paris Has Done At South Carolina
• By The Numbers: No. 11 South Carolina At No. 13 Auburn
• Lamont Paris Discusses How Team Is Handling First Place, Trying To Peak At Right Time

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