COLUMBIA – South Carolina basketball's dream season got a rude awakening Saturday.

LSU's Jordan Wright made a pair of free throws with five seconds left to life the Tigers past No. 11 South Carolina 64-63 at Colonial Life Arena.

Trailing 63-60 with 28 seconds left, Wright made a layup with 17 seconds remaining to pull the Tigers within a point. LSU then forced a turnover on South Carolina's inbounds play and Wright was fouled to set him up for the winning points.

The Gamecocks’ Jacobi Wright missed a 3-point shot at the buzzer.

South Carolina (21-5, 9-4 SEC), which lost by 40 points at Auburn on Wednesday, dropped back-to-back games for the first time this season and fell to 13-2 this season at Colonial Life Arena.

"That wasn’t very fun," South Carolina coach Lamont Paris said. "I was a little shell shocked at some of our decisions. It's just disappointing that you have a game that's there to be won. It was a game of a lot of situations that we just didn’t handle well."

LSU (13-12, 5-7), which had lost four in a row and six of its last seven, snapped a two-game losing streak against the Gamecocks.

South Carolina led by 16 points, 41-25, early in the second half, but LSU clawed its way back and eventually tied the game at 57 with 1:25 left and again at 60-60 with 46 seconds remaining.

Tyrell Ward led LSU with 16 points, including eight points in the final 3:50. Wright scored 14 points, including the Tigers' final seven points of the game

B.J. Mack paced the Gamecocks with 18 points while Collin Murray-Boyles added 13.

The Gamecocks' leading scorer, Meechie Johnson, left the game after colliding with an LSU player with 5:05 remaining and did not return due to concussion protocol. He was 0-for-4 from the floor and went scoreless for the second time in seven games.

Bench points returned for Gamecocks

After being held to a season-low one point off the bench against Auburn, the Gamecocks’ reserves bounced back in a big way Saturday.

Wright provided the biggest punch off the bench, scoring eight points, including a long 3-point shot that give the Gamecocks a 10-point lead, 51-41, with 8:14 remaining.

Junior guard Myles Stute added six points off the bench while senior forward Josh Gray had four as South Carolina got a total of 20 points from its reserves.

B.J. Mack posts solid all-around game

Mack, a graduate transfer from Wofford, led South Carolina in scoring for the seventh time this season with 18 points. He made 8-of-13 shots en route to his 17th double-figure game.

He also had a team-high nine rebounds and three assists, but lamented turning the ball over on a trap by LSU in the final seconds.

"It was an over-the-top pass and I thought I was too close to being out of bounds to call a timeout," Mack said. "I've just got to be strong with the ball in that situation, got to be more physical with it."

Gamecocks looking for strong finish

The Gamecocks have a midweek bye next week, then play back-to-back road games at Ole Miss on Feb. 24 and at Texas A&M on Feb. 28. Two of South Carolina final three regular-season games will be at home – against Florida on March 2 and against Tennessee on March 6.

But Saturday's loss to LSU stung.

"We're going to have games like this in the SEC," Mack said. "This gives us the inspiration to make sure we learn from this moment. It's no a feeling we want to have. We have a whole week to prepare for Saturday against Ole Miss."

Scott Keepfer covers Clemson athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email him at skeepfer@gannett.com and follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @ScottKeepfer

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: South Carolina basketball loses on LSU free throws in final seconds