The game between USC and UK was close until tip-off. From that point on, it was the Kentucky Wildcats show as the USC Gamecocks had no answer for Coach Cal’s team. UK won 90-59.
Malik Cooke had 12 points as he led the way for Carolina. The other rising contributor of late has been the play of Eric Smtih, in this game he had eight points. Leading scorers Bruce Ellington and Sam Muldrow combined for 13 points on 3-of-17 shooting as South Carolina suffered its worst loss of the season.
Reasons for the loss begin with poor shooting, bad shot selection, poor rebounding, poor defense……you get the point.
The Gamecocks have fallen to 13-12. The last time USC started the season 13-12 was 2006. Prior to this game, USC played 39 Top 25 opponents in the last 5 seasons with a record of 10-29. Seems we can now add one more to the ‘L’ column. USC, this year against the RPI Top 50 is now 2-9. USC is now 10th in the SEC with a conference record of 4-8.
USC now has a 5 game losing streak.
These quotes say a lot:
—“We didn’t compete,” Horn said. “There’s really no excuse for that. We had individuals that obviously we count on that didn’t get anything done tonight.”
—Malik Cooke…..”We didn’t compete well enough as a team,” Cooke said. “We got outrebounded and stuff like that. The crowd was in it, [Kentucky] got a lot of loose balls that we should have got.”
—“I have great concern for our players to go out and compete and play what resembles South Carolina basketball,” Horn said.
Next opponent: Mississippi at home on February 22nd.
