With all sorts of positive vibes and maybe even some slightly higher expectations coming out of the Cayman Islands Classic win, BC had a chance to build something.

That didn't last long.

After an ugly loss to Dartmouth after Thanksgiving, it got uglier on Tuesday night with a horrendous shooting night in a 73-51 blowout loss to South Carolina.

The Eagles shot 33% from the field (19-57) including a brutal 2-16 clip (13%) from beyond the arc. BC missed seven free throws and had 11 turnovers.

Chad Venning led the team with 12 points, five rebounds, two assists and three blocks. Donald Hand Jr. had 10 points, seven rebounds, a block and a steal.

"Obviously, South Carolina played a great game," Earl Grant said. "They took us out of a lot of stuff offensively being real physical, denying the wings, using their length and athleticism to be disruptive. They took us out of a lot.

"Defensively I thought we broke down. We weren't as connected as we needed to be. We hang our hat on defense. So, to hold them to 36 points in the second half...I thought if we put two good halves together that game would have been completely different. Got to give them credit, they were the better team today, obviously. They played a better brand of basketball."

Through the first nine minutes, BC had eight points and Chad Venning had all of them. The Eagles opened 5-12 with Venning 4-5. Finally, someone else chipped in as Jayden Hastings had an offensive rebound and put-back dunk to get within one at 11-10.

Elijah Strong buried a three coming out of a timeout after the Gamecocks had made it 14-10. From that point on, South Carolina's speed and ball movement off stops soon turned into a 26-17 lead with under six left in the half.

The lead grew to 33-17 as the Eagles went scoreless for five-plus minutes. Shots continued staying out, but Donald Hand finally got BC's first points in six minutes with a couple of free throws at the one minute mark.

The Eagles remained without a bucket for the final 7:18 of the half and trailed 36-19 at the break. BC was just 8-28 (Venning 5-7, 10 points), 1-8 from three and had seven turnovers.

"Just compete, try to grow from this loss,," Venning said of what BC can take from this one. "Just try to keep competing in practice and keep trying to get better, really."

A Venning hook shot finally broke the scoreless run (0-11 in that span) on the second BC possession of the half, making it 38-21 Gamecocks. BC finally hit the 30-point mark with just over 10 minutes left with SC up 49-30. South Carolina took a 20-point lead for the first time at 55-35 with a corner three as the clock ticked under nine minutes.

A Donald Hand Jr. fast break dunk with two minutes left was the highlight of the night, but only cut it to 68-48 as BC ultimately went down without much of a fight.

The Eagles (6-3) are on the road Saturday against Wake Forest.

I don't really want to overreact, get too high or get too low," Grant added. "It's never as good or bad as what you think it is. There's some things we've got to correct. There's just some things we've got to correct to be better.

"I think these guys have enough character and enough willingness to do it, but it's going to take some time."