Gators Falter Late in Gamecocks' Comeback

Saturday, March 2

Columbia, SC

12 PM

Florida Gators

20-9,10-6SEC

South Carolina

24-5,12-4SEC

Florida

South Carolina

Tommy Haugh (10), Alex Condon (21) and the rest of the Gators had their hands full with South Carolina guard Meechie Johnson, who scored 21 of his game-high 25 in the second half.

Gators Falter Late in Gamecocks' Comeback

Saturday, March 2, 2024 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry

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By: UAA Communications

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Offensive rebounding and ball security have been strengths for Florida all season, but those two areas failed the Gators on the road Saturday, which was something of a surprise. As for their struggles against the South Carolina zone defense?

Not a surprise.

USC guard Meechie Johnson was near perfect in the second half, scoring 21 of his 25 points, including the go-ahead 3-pointer with 43 seconds left to fuel the 18^th-ranked Gamecocks double-digit comeback and 82-76 defeat of the No. 24 Gators in their afternoon Southeastern Conference showdown at Colonial Life Arena.

For Florida (20-9, 10-6), the loss was a hard hit to its quest for a top-four seed at the SEC Tournament in Nashville, Tenn., on March 13-17. By day's end, pending results around the league, UF could be tied for fourth or dropped alone in sixth place. South Carolina (24-5, 12-4), which finished last in the SEC a year and were preseason picks to do so again, continued its magical season-long story with a third consecutive win and will be tied for second place – and just a game out of first – come Saturday night.

Johnson basically came out of the locker unconscious, hitting nine of his 10 field-goal attempts to ignite a rally from 10 points down with 12 minutes remaining. The Gators tried to counter Johnson's hot hand, mostly with guard Walter Clayton Jr. dropping six 3s on his way to a team-high 20 points. Clayton, though, had another impact on the game.

"I turned the ball over too much," said Clayton, who had a season-high six giveaways. "Us not getting shots up [late], that's on me."

As a team, UF turned it over 12 times, with five coming in the final three minutes against a 1-3-1 zone defense the Gamecocks rolled out midway through the period and completely altered the flow of a game the home team was trailing by 10. Similar zone concepts had proved problematic for the Gators at times this season and those struggles reared themselves again.

"I thought it was obviously a good move to try to change the pace for them," UF coach Todd Golden said. "We just weren't aggressive enough attacking it and just moving [the ball] a little too much side to side at the top. We got it down early in the corners a couple times and had a turnover or two, which had us playing on our heels a little bit."

South Carolina outscored Florida 36-20 over the final 11-plus minutes by shooting nearly 58 percent from the floor and limiting the Gators, the No. 3 offensive rebounding team in the country, to a single offensive board (with that one coming with just 21 seconds left) in the second half.

USC backup guard Jacoby Wright scored 16 points off the bench, banging four of his eight attempts from distance. Freshman forward Collin Murray-Boyles had 15 points, 11 rebounds and knocked down nine of his 10 free throws.

Speaking of free throws, South Carolina shot a bunch of them, as UF fouled and fouled some more in the halfcourt. The Gamecocks were 23-for-31 at the line (16 of 22 in the second half) versus the Gators going 12-for-15 overall and nine of 10 in the second.

"That's just a really big delta to try and close," Golden said. "I have to do a better job of teaching my guys how to defend without fouling. Obviously, these other teams that we're playing are doing a better job of defending without fouling."

Florida led 63-57 after a 3-pointer by Zyon Pullin (18 points, 4 rebounds, 7 assists) with 7:25 to go. That was when South Carolina took off on a run of eight straight points to take its first lead since late in the first half, capitalizing on UF's stagnant offensive spell.

"That 1-3-1 bothered us," Pullin said.

Even so, the score was knotted at 74 after Clayton drilled 3 with 1:11 remaining, but Johnson got the cushion right back with his tie-breaker from distance with 43 seconds to go.

"I just felt good," Johnson said. "I felt confident."

After Pullin missed a driving layup attempt, Murray-Boyles' two free throws made it a five-point cushion. An errant Clayton 3 at the Florida end was offensive-rebounded by Richard, but his pitch-out pass attempt was thrown out of bounds with 21 seconds to go.

From there, the Gamecocks iced the game from the free-throw line.

For Florida, it was another road game – a Quadrant 1 game, per the NCAA Evaluation Tool ratings – that slipped away. Like at Texas A&M. Like at Alabama. All three losses came after the Gators held double-digit leads in the second half.

This time, on too many critical possessions, the Gators gave it away. Literally.

"South Carolina is physical. They do a really good job of playing the ball and if you're not strong with it you're going to put yourself in situations where they're going to take it," Golden said. "Again, we were trying to kind of knife our way through the zone a little bit. They're long, they're active and we just weren't playing well in those right spaces and that led to most of those turnovers in the second half."