They've won at Baylor on a last-second shot. Last Saturday, they knocked off Auburn at home in the SEC opener.

Now, as far as head coach Darrin Horn is concerned, South Carolina faces its most difficult test of the season – a pair of consecutive road game in the SEC.

USC travels to Baton Rouge, La. to face LSU on Wednesday night (8 p.m. ET tipoff) carrying a three-game winning streak.

Both teams have 12 victories on the season. LSU fell to Alabama, 65-59, Sunday afternoon in Tuscaloosa, Ala. in their conference opener and will bring a two-game losing streak into Wednesday's game at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center (13,215).

After taking on the Tigers, USC will head to Knoxville on Saturday to square off with nationally-ranked Tennessee at 6 p.m. ET.

While the volume of the chatter about the Gamecocks has started to get a bit louder over the last week, some college basketball observers are skeptical of the Tigers, claiming they've feasted on an exceptionally weak non-conference schedule that's included Jackson State, Alcorn State, Northwestern State, Centenary, Grambling, Nicholls State, McNeese State and Southeastern Louisiana.

Horn, the first USC coach to direct the Gamecocks to a 3-0 record in January since 1997, isn't buying it.

"Anytime you go on the road in SEC play or league play in general, you can expect for it to be tough," Horn said Monday during the bi-weekly SEC teleconference. "This is a LSU team that's extremely athletic and has some veteran players. There are some difficult matchups for us, for sure. We're expecting it to be a tough game."

Shooting guard Zam Fredrick hopes for a repeat of last Saturday's performance against Auburn when he scored 17 of his 27 points – one shy of his career high – in the second half to spark the Gamecocks over Auburn. He's currently averaging 16.1 points and 3.2 rebounds per game, both career highs.

Fredrick keyed a second-half turnaround offensively for the Gamecocks, connecting on 5-of-9 shots to help USC shoot 56.0 percent (14 of 25) from the field and build a 19-point lead over the Tigers before the visitors mounted a comeback that cut the lead to seven (60-53). But USC scored eight of the next nine points to pull away in the final minutes.

"Zam stepped up big for us in a game when we were struggling offensively," Horn said. "He did what you would hope fifth year seniors are going to do, play with poise and aggressiveness and show a lot of leadership in a game where we didn't get off to a real good start. He made some shots and created some baskets for us and did a good job getting to the foul line and knocked down those shots as well. We were able to settle down and play well in the second half."

Devan Downey, USC's leading scorer and the third highest in the conference (19.7 ppg), scored just nine points against Auburn, the first time he's collected less than 10 points in 16 games, but spearheaded his team's second half defensive effort with a pair of steals.

By the end of the game, Auburn had committed a season-high 24 turnovers with 13 of those coming by the steal.

Downey leads the SEC in steals by a wide margin with an average of 3.1 per game (43 in 14 games). Downey and Fredrick are both in the Top 10 in the SEC in scoring, making the Gamecocks just one of two teams (Kentucky is the other) to have a pair of conference scorers among the Top 10.

Most people felt before the season that Downey would find Horn's up-tempo style to his liking and that appears to be the case as the 2008-2009 regular season reaches the halfway mark.

"Devan fits in really well with our style," Horn said. "He pushes the ball in transition and creates a lot offensively, which is a big key for the way we want to play. Defensively, he is terrific on the ball. He's learning to be a good off-ball defender. More than anything, the attitude and the toughness he plays with is a great fit for the way we hope to play and want to play. He's responded very well."

It took just one game against a SEC opponent for Horn to appreciate the subtle differences between playing a conference foe as opposed to a non-conference opponent. Unless you're mentally prepared to play every night, any SEC team can beat you.

"It's mental more than anything, especially when you have a team like ours or LSU who have a couple of key guys back and have been through the wars, so to speak" Horn said. "I see the major differences. It's such a higher level of intensity on every single play. That requires a mental adjustment and a mental toughness even more than the physical aspect."

One of the keys to USC's early success has been outstanding shooting from beyond the arc. The Gamecocks pace the SEC with 39.2 percent shooting (89-of-227) on 3-point attempts. Evka Baniulis is hitting 55.6 percent of his shots from 3-point range, although Fredrick hit all four of USC's triples against Auburn.

Obviously, the longer 3-point shot (the line was moved back about a foot before this season) has not affected the Gamecocks as much as other teams.

"I think people are a little more aware of it than they were," Horn said. "You see less guys taking it, or the right guys are taking a few more. I can't tell if it's impacted things in a major way. The last numbers I saw would seem to indicate that to some degree. But I do think it has separated guys who can really make the shot from guys who can kind of make the shot. That's being exposed to some degree."