COLUMBIA, S.C. _ In his immediate assessment of Kentucky's 81-78 loss at South Carolina on Wednesday, John Calipari kept returning to one word: discipline.
The UK coach said players improvised rather than run called plays. Players left South Carolina shooters open in the corners, a no-no even the casual Kentucky basketball fan knows. The failed to block out: South Carolina's 20 offensive rebounds were a season high for a UK opponent.
"You can't play that way in a big-time game," Calipari said.
Kentucky, which fell to 12-4 overall and 3-1 in the Southeastern Conference, committed a season-high 26 fouls. UK came into the game averaging 16.8. UK also had 15 turnovers, its second-highest total of the season (18 against Eastern Kentucky was the most).
The end result was a loss in a game that Kentucky led for more than 35 minutes, and by as much as 14 with barely 15 minutes to play.
"I thought we had them when it was 14," Calipari said. "'Let's get this to 20.' "
That was about the time Kentucky gave up corner 3-point shots that helped South Carolina rally.
"When you get a chance to get someone to 20 (points behind), you do it," Calipari said. "This team does not do it. We haven't done it all year. Then all of a sudden, we break off or we break down defensively."
At one juncture, UK players broke off the same called play three straight times, Calipari said. "The guy did his own thing three straight times. I was like, 'Are you not hearing what I'm saying?' "
Then, as if mimicking what some UK players thought or said, Calipari added, " 'It's not a big deal.' "
But, a lost opportunity to crush an opponent can come back to haunt a team.
"You're not playing Saint Aloysius," Calipari said. "This is Division I, major-college, Power Five. Every possession matters. And when you get a chance to get somebody down, you do it."
South Carolina, which won for the first time in three SEC games and improved to 9-7 overall, came into the game with the league's third-worst NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) rating: No. 121. Only Texas A&M (122) and Vanderbilt (132) ranked lower among SEC teams.
Jermaine Couisnard, a redshirt freshman making his first collegiate start, and sophomore Keyshawn Bryant led the Gamecocks' rally. Couisnard scored a career-high 26 points. Bryant added a season-high 15.
Couisnard scored 14 of his points in the final 10:32 of the second half and overtime.
Immanuel Quickley _ UK's hottest shooter and maybe the country's _ hit a jumper with 4.1 seconds left in overtime to tie it at 78. That capped a team-high 20-point game for Quickley.
With South Carolina coach Frank Martin's instruction to attack fresh in mind, Couisnard rushed up court. He rose near the top of the key and shot over Nick Richards' outstretched hand.
"It was a pretty good contest," Richards said. "In transition, I thought he was going to go for a layup."
There wasn't time for that. So Couisnard shot ... and hoped.
"I really didn't know it was going in," he said. "I felt like I shot an air ball, to be honest."
After a miserable 9-for-37 shooting performance in the first half, South Carolina made 20 of 36 shots after the break. Nate Sestina blamed himself for not effectively boxing out to prevent the Gamecocks from offensive rebounding.
"They outrebounded us," Sestina said. "They, at times, outhustled us. (Assistant coach Tony) Barbee said before the game the more physical team is going to win. And they were more physical than us. And that was the outcome."
Sestina cited a put-back dunk by Bryant earlier in the game as a critical.
"I missed a block-out," Sestina said. "(Bryant) got an offensive rebound and put-back dunk. And it shifted the momentum. A little bit. The crowd got into it."
Calipari suggested that Couisnard's winning shot served as a form of basketball justice being served.
"When you play like we did and you give them so many offensive rebounds, that's when a team throws in a 30-footer that banks in," he said.
South Carolina "deserved to win the game," Calipari added. "It would have been a shame if we had somehow thrown one in and won the game. I would have been happy. But it would have been a shame."
