Meechie Johnson game-winner lifts USC past Ole Miss in regular season finale

The South Carolina men’s basketball team’s regular-season finale against Ole Miss was all about pride.

There wasn’t much else riding on USC’s trip to Oxford, Mississippi on Saturday afternoon. March Madness hopes left the building months prior, and a first-round bye in the SEC Tournament was well out of reach. A loss probably wasn’t going to cost fourth-year coach Lamont Paris his job, as national pundits reported USC as being unlikely to buy him out.

But there was still pride. There was still the chance to pull ahead of the fellow lowly Rebels in the SEC standings and prevent another year of the Gamecocks filling the role of the conference bottom-feeder.

USC secured the win and restored some pride with a 64-61 victory against Ole Miss, surviving a late rally and pulling out the win thanks to a game-winning 3-pointer from Meechie Johnson with 0.7 seconds left.

“That was fun. You just reflect on what it must feel like for the guys, and especially Meechie Johnson,” Paris told the Gamecock Sports Network’s Derek Scott and Casey Manning after the game. “Nothing says March like half-court buzzer-beaters.”

Here are three takeaways from the win:

Johnson saves Gamecocks from late collapse

Just as hot as the Gamecocks (13-18 SEC, 4-14 SEC) came out for the first half, USC returned to the court for the second half cold as ice. Johnson hit a 3-pointer to start the half before USC missed its next five shots and turned the ball over three times as Ole Miss (12-19, 4-13 SEC) went on a 9-0 run and took its first lead of the game with 15 minutes left in the half.

The Gamecocks, who entered Saturday 12-1 in games where they led at halftime, looked like they might allow Ole Miss to become another exception. USC missed its final seven field goal attempts of the game as the Rebels rallied back to a tie game at 61-61.

“We wobbled and stumbled into that situation,” Paris said in his postgame radio interview. “There were a lot of waves. We lost the lead, they tied it, but in the end we were able to make enough plays.”

Johnson had 13 points in the second half after not scoring a point until the final minute of the first half. He brought the ball up the court with five seconds left, put a 25-foot 3-pointer for the win and nailed it, saving USC from another last place finish in the SEC.

Nordin Kapic’s strong finish, USC’s strong start

Contrary to USC’s typically cold and streaky shooting starts, the Gamecocks shot consistently well in the first half against Ole Miss, which led to some positive early returns.

USC started shooting 50% on its first 10 shots while Ole Miss began just 2 of 10 from the floor. The Gamecocks were able to pull out to an 11-point lead —their largest of the half— just nine minutes into the game. Ole Miss began to warm up late, finishing shooting 38.5% from the floor, but USC remained steady and shot 50% through the end of the half to keep the Rebels at arm’s length.

The Gamecocks ended the half up 34-28 after making four of their last five field goal attempts.

USC’s hot start was led by a 10-point half from senior forward Nordin Kapic. The UC San Diego transfer hasn’t had the season he’d hoped for when he signed with USC. He entered the regular season finale averaging 3.4 points in less than 10 minutes per game.

Kapic has been able to put the down year behind him and finish strong to end the season. He scored 13 points in USC’s Senior Night game against Tennessee, combining with his double-digit performance against Ole Miss for the first stretch of back-to-back games with 10-plus points this season. Kapic finished Saturday’s game with 12 points on 4-of-7 shooting.

SEC Tournament implications

With the win, USC prevented a second-straight last-place finish under fourth-year coach Paris. The Gamecocks will end the 2025-26 regular season with four SEC wins, tied for the second-worst under Paris and a two-win improvement from USC’s Paris-era worst 2-16 conference record last year.

The Gamecocks’ final position in the SEC standings is still in flux. Depending on how the remaining slate of SEC games shakes out, USC could finish as high as 14th and as low as 15th but cannot finish last. USC is guaranteed to play in the first round of the SEC Tournament on March 11 in Nashville, but whether it plays in Game 3 at 7 p.m. or in Game 4 —which tips off 25 minutes after Game 3 — will also depend on the remaining SEC games.

“What a great way to go into any sort of tournament, with this type of game and this type of finish,” Paris told the Gamecock Sports Network.

This story was originally published March 7, 2026 at 3:06 PM with the headline "Meechie Johnson game-winner lifts USC past Ole Miss in regular season finale."