GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The natural inclination, given the program's recent track record, is to make the assumption the Florida basketball team went into Wednesday night's game against Southeastern Conference foe South Carolina — the Gators' first game as a ranked team since early last season and riding a four-game winning, to boot — with a case of the big head. Easy assumption, after the struggling Gamecocks delivered the 22nd-ranked Gators an 72-66 gut-punch of a loss at Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center.  

But not an accurate one, according to Coach Mike White. 

On the contrary, White said, Florida went back to work after Saturday's big road upset of No. 11 West Virginia, had decent focus and lively work during their two-plus days of preparation. Overconfidence wasn't the problem. No, something far less intangible was at work. 

"Quite bluntly, we're just an average defensive team and that showed up tonight," White said. "We'd gotten away with it in a couple wins in which we just out-scored the opponent. Down the stretch tonight, when [shots] don't go in the basket, the lack of defensive prowess showed up glaringly."

And it led to a lack of offensive prowess that was equally as glaring. Maybe more so. 

South Carolina used a run of 10 straight points in the final six-plus minutes to zap a six-point Florida lead on the way to out-scoring the Gators 13-1 over that timeframe, forcing them to miss their last eight field-goal attempts. USC junior guard A.J. Lawson led all scorers with 22 points, but Lawson was on the bench with four fouls when his teammates raced to the first six of those 10 points to tie the game and basically seize control. Grad-transfer guard Seventh Woods scored a season-high 12 points, but it was the Gamecocks (5-6, 3-5) in totality that did in the home team by smashing UF on the glass 27-16 in the second half, grabbing 13 offensive rebounds that led to 20 second-chance points. Of USC's 72 points, 50 came in the paint. 

"They just hit us in the mouth," said UF sophomore guard Tre Mann, who led his team with 17 points and eight rebounds. "They made winning plays that we didn't make. They had offensive rebounds. They got whatever they wanted late."
 
The Gators (10-5, 6-4), who dropped into a three-way tie for second place in the SEC standings with LSU and Arkansas, helped the opponent with some poor ball security in the second half and a bevy of porous defensive possessions that led either to blow-bys or offensive rebounds. 

"Just one-on-one isolation defense," White said. "Seventh Woods. Dribble, dribble, dribble, go get a basket. A.J. Lawson hit some shots off screens and actions, but he also went and caught the ball, drove past the guy defending him and got a layup. It's just not good enough. Not good enough. We have to take more pride there."

In closing out games, also. 

The Gators fought hard to erase an early 10-point deficit to eventually take a five-point lead at halftime and stretch it to eight, 55-47, with just over 13 minutes to go. The Gamecocks, surely still smarting four days removed from being the first SEC team to lose to Vanderbilt this season, scored 10 straight over the next three minutes to go up by two points. A couple 3s by Mann, two free throws by Colin Castleton (11 points, just 4-for-12 from the floor 7 rebounds, 7 blocks) and a block by Castleton that led to a transition slam-dunk by Omar Payne staked Florida to a six-point advantage, 65-59, with 6:38 to go and Lawson, with those 22 points, on the bench with four fouls. 

That's when South Carolina scored three baskets in less than minute, courtesy of a couple UF turnovers. After a timeout, the Gamecocks added two more buckets for a second 10-point run of the period and a four-point lead that momentarily shrank to three after Mann made one of two free throws. 

An offensive rebound and putback by backup forward Keyshawn Bryant (8 points, 7 rebounds), made it a five-point game with 1:44 left. Mann missed a jumper at UF's end and after a USC turnover Gators guard Tyree Appleby, the team's top free-throw shooter at 81 percent, with the chance to make it a one-possession game, missed the front end of a one-and-one with 25.6 seconds left.

It was that kind night, with the Gamecocks finishing the game on a 13-1 run over the final 5:42, but pretty much setting the tone for the game through their defensive intensity and relentless effort around the basket.

"You've got to make some 3s to win, but whoever wins the fight for the paint still wins the game," South Carolina coach Frank Martin said. "The 3s are for the fans and the stats and for all the people who sit around and say it's a pretty game when it's played that way. I don't disagree. I wish we would could make 15, 16 3s in a game. But at the end of the day, if you want to win, you better get that ball in the paint."

Better play defense, also. Much better than the Gators played.

Mann, though, had comments along the anticipated talking points after UF fell to 11-11 when ranked over the past four seasons. The Gators, who came into the game ranked first in the SEC in field-goal percentage at just over 47 percent, scored just 26 points after halftime on 32-percent shooting

"Every one hurts," Mann said. "This one hurts more because I feel like we laid down."

White didn't go there, wasn't going there. He saw a team that looked prepared going into the game. Which probably made the outcome all the more frustrating. 

"These guys worked the last two days. The overall level wasn't off from where it was leading into West Virginia. I don't know if it was exactly the same, but it was pretty good. I'm going to be careful with comments that might take away from our opponent," White said. "We've got to be the same team all 40 minutes of every game and every practice."