South Carolina badly needed to steal one on the road following a disappointing 74-69 loss at home to a beatable Georgia team earlier this week, primarily due to a hapless day at the free throw line (17-32) and the 3-point line (6-26). Compounded by the fact that you lost one of your better behind-the-arc shooters for 2-3 weeks when Myles Stute went down, it was easy to be a bit pessimistic that South Carolina could get on track on the road against an Arkansas team that has been up and down but usually plays well at Bud Walton arena. In fact, prior to today, the Gamecocks have played 17 games there all time, had a 5-12 record, had only won by 5+ points twice and their largest win their ever was by 15 in 2016, a feat they nearly equaled today.

This afternoon, South Carolina turned their fortunes, behind an improvement in both categories they struggled with on Tuesday. The Gamecocks shot 9-18 from three today (50%) and made 12-17 of their FT opportunities (71%). Four players scored in double figures, and defensively the Gamecocks outrebounded the Razorbacks 39-27.

One of the biggest individual swings came from BJ Mack who got 16 points the ugly way on Tuesday vs. UGA but went 1-6 from three. Today he co-led all scorers with 18 points and made 3-4 from three. He also nearly pulled off a double-double with 9 rebounds.

Zach Davis who filled in for the injured Stute, had one of the better games of his career with 12 points, including a monster 2nd-half dunk that had Sportscenter Top 10 potential.

Still, the game had some brief drama down the stretch, with Arkansas pulling within 7 points near the middle of the 2nd half, following some heroics from Tramon Mark for the Razorbacks when he drained two threes and scored 8 straight points for the Razorbacks. He ultimately led Arkansas with 18 points, but the Gamecocks settled in and quickly pushed the lead back to as large as 19 following good immediate responses from Ta'Lon Cooper (11 points) and Jacobi Wright (5 points), and a couple of timely threes from Meechie Johnson (8 points) and Cooper.

Collin Murray-Boyles continued his growth trajectory with 11 points and 4 rebounds of his own. If it seems like I've mentioned nearly every name on the Gamecocks' roster at this point, that's because every single player who got minutes today scored points, and it was one of the most complete performances for South Carolina yet this season, and definitely the best showing in SEC play. With the win, the Gamecocks move to 15-3 overall and 3-2 in the SEC, with some tough ranked games right around the corner.

Next up: South Carolina will hope to keep the momentum going with a tough home game on Tuesday vs. the #8 Kentucky Wildcats at 7 pm EST on SECN.

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