GREENVILLE, S.C. — Yet again, South Carolina men's basketball could not get itself off the ground early.

Three days after putting itself in a huge hole by falling behind 10-0 inside the first two minutes at UAB, the Gamecocks were even slower out of the blocks against East Carolina at the Greenville winter invitational. It took more than five minutes for South Carolina to register a point and by that time it was already facing a 12-0 deficit. East Carolina’s lead never fell below seven points for the rest of the afternoon as the Pirates sailed to a comfortable 64-56 victory.

"Some of it is being tentative and some of it is also not playing well," Lamont Paris said about the slow starts. "I don't want to dumb it down at all, but as we look again we had a similar situation in the last game. I look at this here, we have one guy with 15 points on 11 shots, 13 points on 14 shots, 13 points on 11 shots. You're talking about basically one point per field goal attempt. That's not efficient."

RJ Felton led the way in scoring for East Carolina (8-4) with 21 points and a balanced 3-point shooting game paced the offense. The Pirates were 9-of-22 from beyond the arc and had three different players knock down at least two triples with an outside shooting barrage.

GG Jackson did his best to keep the Gamecocks in the game with a 13-point performance on his 18th birthday and Hayden Brown scored 15, but there were far too many stagnant offensive possessions in the first half. Ball movement was a struggle, as they finished the first half with just one assist and seven turnovers. A tight, aggressive man-to-man East Carolina defense forced South Carolina (5-6) onto the perimeter, and unlike at the other end, the shots were not falling. The Gamecocks finished just 6-of-24 from 3-point range and were 2-of-13 in the first half.

The Gamecocks trailed by as many as 21 points, but almost managed to pull the game all the way back with a huge early second half run. It all started with a much more aggressive approach on offense, forcing the ball inside to Josh Gray and Brown in particular.

Brown and Benjamin Bosmans-Verdonk both had strong drives inside from the perimeter that led to easy scores, and momentum started to shift with a better defensive showing. It opened up a little bit more space on the perimeter for Meechie Johnson, who took advantage with a pair of second-half 3-pointers.

"I want those guys to be aggressive," Paris said. "And so I think I've been trying to get those guys aggressive. I hope I get to the point with all these guys that I can just talk about basketball things. Okay, we can work on that. When the ball screen happens, here's a read. That guy did this, this guy did this, those are decisions versus trying to get guys to be aggressive."

South Carolina managed to cut it all the way down to seven points at 44-37, 46-39 and 53-46 through various points in the second half, but a full comeback never quite materialized. Whether it was East Carolina knocking down shots or its own turnovers on offense, the Gamecocks could never crack the seven-point threshold.

Fittingly, it was Felton who dropped the dagger when he banked in a left corner 3-pointer that took the Pirates' lead back into double-digits with 2:22 remaining. One possession later Felton finished off a layup in transition after a Jackson missed 3-pointer.

South Carolina has two games left on its non-conference schedule, both at Colonial Life Arena starting with a game against Western Kentucky on Thursday.