STARKVILLE, Miss. — South Carolina men’s basketball tipped off SEC play at 1:05 p.m. local time, and had an 0-1 record by about 1:15.

It was an all systems failure at Mississippi State, as the No. 17 ranked Bulldogs went on an early 13-2 run, led by as many as 22 in the first 15 minutes of game time and blasted South Carolina 85-50 in the conference opener.

"They did a lot of things well and we didn't do very many things well at all," Lamont Paris said. "We played poorly I thought, in a lot of different areas. As shooters, as passers, as decision makers, a lot of facets."

All season long, South Carolina (10-4, 0-1 SEC) has started slowly. It trailed at halftime against Presbyterian, Radford and East Carolina in the month of December, and there was always the lingering possibility of a start like that burying the Gamecocks in an SEC game. At Humphrey Coliseum, all of the doomsday scenarios came to life.

Sensational sophomore guard Josh Hubbard knocked down 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions early in the game to build an 8-2 lead for Mississippi State, and by the time the Gamecocks found the basket again they were already down 15-2 after ending up on the wrong side of a 13-0 run.

Worst of all, this was not a disaster you could really pin on one area. South Carolina turned it over three times on its first six possessions, 10 in the first half an 14 for the game. Frontcourt play was non-existent, as star forward Collin Murray-Boyles had more turnovers than points in the first half and finished the game with just five points as largely a non-factor. Outside play was no better, as the Gamecocks missed their eight attempts from beyond the arc and finished the game just 2-of-19.

"I don't know why it was a bad start," Paris said. "We just didn't have it. If Collin struggles like that, it's a real struggle. He's a good player; it was a real struggle."

There was little to no flow on offense, with Mississippi State’s defense constantly stonewalling any ball movement. The defense was at times non-functional, leaving Hubbard open from deep on several occasions and getting completely overmatched in the paint. Rebounding evened out as the shooting percentages did, but at one point midway through the first half the Bulldogs were tripling up the Gamecocks on the glass.

In every possible way a basketball game can go wrong, this one did.

Zachary Davis was the lone bright spot of South Carolina’s miserable afternoon. The junior guard scored 22 points, blowing past is previous career-high of 18 overall and 16 against an SEC opponent.

"Just being in the right spots at the right time," Davis said. "In practice we preached on being in the right spots at the right time because of the way they play defense, and I just took advantage of that."

But nothing Davis or anyone else did could stop the total onslaught from the Bulldogs. Hubbard scored 21, Claudell Harris Jr., KeShawn Murphy and Riley Kugel all got into double-digits, it was impossible to ignore the body language of a defeated bench. It felt like the first step on a long, painful march through the toughest conference in college basketball.

Alabama and Auburn, both ranked in the top-5 nationally, will enter Colonial Life Arena next week. Two more road games, one against undefeated Oklahoma, are coming the following week. And nine weeks of an 18-game SEC gauntlet to go with a team that looked dysfunctional and overwhelmed in the first of those 18 games.

“We’ve got 17 more games, and it’s going to be a lot of similar games to that," forward Nick Pringle said about Mississippi State' physiclity. "We have to step up our game a lot to be able to handle the rest of the games coming our way.”

It was as bad as it possibly could have been, and there is no reprieve on the horizon.

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