If there’s a microcosm of South Carolina’s season to-date, it happened in the final minute of Tuesday’s loss to Alabama.

Right on the cusp of taking down their second ranked opponent in three games, the Gamecocks missed two chances to tie the game predicated, Frank Martin said, by the Gamecocks’ inability to execute as a team down the stretch.

Needing a three to tie the game with less than five seconds left, the Gamecocks inexplicably dialed up a quick two ad-lib and it ultimately led to the team letting a signature win opportunity slip through their fingers.

“Coming out of the timeout we drew up a play for a three. We shouldn’t have gone for the two. We should have gone for the three,” Minaya said. “We played into what they wanted us to do, which was getting a two, and left it wide open. I mean, we have to be better coming out of a timeout like that and executing down the stretch.”

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With South Carolina trailing 79-76 with three seconds left, the Gamecocks had an in-bounds pass and needed a three-pointer to force overtime.

Knowing that, Alabama guarded the three-point line, the Gamecocks panicked and Couisnard found Minaya under the basket for a two, cutting the deficit to one but giving Alabama the ball back.

South Carolina was forced to foul and Alabama made both of its free throws to ice the game.

The play—according to Minaya, AJ Lawson and head coach Frank Martin—was designed to get a three and the Gamecocks’ inability to execute out of a timeout, something that’s plagued them all season.

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“You probably know as much as me. We ran something where there are three different options for a three point shot. Alabama stood around the three-point line and instead of running what we asked to run we had no mental connection to the situations,” Martin said.

“That’s the story of the whole season: our inability to have five guys on the same page when it’s not about running and shooting an open court three or a layup. When you have to execute a play you have to have five guys connected and we just can’t do that right now. It’s really, really frustrating.”

That sequence put to bed a frustrating final 30 seconds of the game where South Carolina missed two shots, including the inbounds pass, that would have tied the game.

The Gamecock defense bowed its neck—forcing a missed shot with 31 seconds left and setting up a potentially game-tying shot.

Seventh Woods took the ball down and pulled-up for a midrange jumper he missed, giving Alabama the ball back.

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“He had the courage to go take a shot. That’s not the shot we wanted but he had to because we couldn’t execute the simplicity of what I asked to do in that possession. I wish he would have put his head down. He had a bigger guy on him, just try and drive the guy to create a foul,” Martin said.

“But Seventh is really good from that midrange. Those 14, 15-foot pull-up shots, he’s really good at them. He went to the shot he’s good at; what made it harder is he had a 6-foot-7 guy in front of him. That guy did his job. Again, he tried to bail us out after guys didn’t execute what was called.”

The frustrating part of that final 17-second spurt was the players who had breakdowns—notably Couisnard and Minaya on the inbounds—have been in the program for at least three years and starters for at least two.

“We have guys that should understand sacrifices players before them have made to create the atmosphere we’ve built here,” Martin said. “It’s disappointing guys have been in the program for three or four years and slip up in that moment like that.”