Despite leading for most of the second half, Lamont Paris’s South Carolina basketball team fell to A-Sun foe North Florida in the season opener.
South Carolina basketball entered as 15+ point favorites for Monday night’s matchup, but they let the Ospreys hang with the team until the final minutes, when North Florida took the lead and didn’t relinquish it. Jaylen Smith led the team with 16 points, while Jasai Miles put up 11 points and 9 rebounds. Columbia transfer Liam Murphy provided 14 points off the bench.
For the Gamecocks, Collin Murray-Boyles, Zachary Davis, Jacobi Wright, and Jamarii Thomas all scored in double figures for Lamont Paris’s team. Nick Pringle led the Gamecocks with nine rebounds.
Takeaway #1: Free-throw woes cost Gamecocks a stunner
As mentioned before, South Carolina was leading for most of the second half. The Gamecocks were up going into the final media timeout and lost by three points.
A one-possession loss is frustrating. A one-possession loss where the team went 14-25 (56.0%) from the free-throw line? Backbreaking.
South Carolina was 11th in the SEC with just a 71.1 FT% last year, so this isn’t a new issue. But to see it be so prevalent and so damaging so quickly? That’s not a good sign. Nick Pringle was 3-8 from the line and Collin Murray-Boyles was 3-6. In a three-point loss, that makes all the difference.
Takeaway #2: Liam Murphy fits right into the “Birds of Trey” offense
The Columbia (the Ivy League school, not the city in South Carolina) transfer took eight threes and made half of them, finishing the night with 14 points, second-most on the Ospreys.
Murphy seems to be a perfect fit for the offense, which is known for the high volume of three-pointers taken. Last season, North Florida led the entirety of D-1 with 33.2 3PA per game. No other team recorded more than 32.0 attempts per game. That offensive scheme makes them an opportunistic hunter of large prey, similar to the Osprey itself, the team nickname.
Takeaway #3: Collin Murray-Boyles is the star he’s made out to be
Yes, South Carolina basketball lost. And yes, it was to an inferior opponent from a smaller conference. But CMB showed up, posting a 17-7-1 stat line with four blocks and two steals. That’s impressive.
Seen as a first-round draft pick in next year’s NBA draft by some, Murray-Boyles is the unquestioned leader of this Gamecocks squad, and he showed how valuable he was tonight, even in the loss. A physical presence in the paint, the sophomore was able to show off his physicality against the Ospreys. It just wasn’t enough.
Moving forward, Murray-Boyles will likely be able to keep South Carolina competitive in any game, but he’ll need to improve his shooting efficiency (7-16 tonight) if the team wants to improve concurrently.
Next up for South Carolina (0-1): vs. South Carolina State (1-0) – Nov. 8 at 7 p.m. EST
Next up for North Florida (1-0): vs. Charleston Southern (0-1) – Nov. 7 at 7 p.m. EST