ATHENS, Ga. — As sure as anything can be in sports, South Carolina and Georgia men’s basketball played another nail-biter.

Mostly.

The fourth meeting between the teams in a little over a calendar year followed the script of the first three, a trio of decided by a total of 14 points with an overtime included.

This time South Carolina snatched the upper-hand with a second half surge, winning 72-62 at Stegeman Coliseum to secure its fifth consecutive SEC win.

"I thought it was a tremendous competitive effort by our guys," Lamont Paris said. "When we started off defensively we weren't getting some things done, then we settled into some things defensively."

It is only the fifth time the Gamecocks have had a winning streak of at least five games in league play, and the first time since the Final Four season of 2016-17.

In each of the previous four seasons, it made the NCAA Tournament.

For a portion of the first half it looked like the latest installment of the rivalry would not go to script, with Georgia (14-8, 4-5 SEC) threatening to run South Carolina (19-3, 7-2 SEC) out of the gym with hot shooting. The Bulldogs knocked down seven of their first 10 3-point attempts of the game, with bench sharpshooter Blue Cain knocking down three on as many possessions at one point to help the home side open up a 10-point lead.

But the Gamecocks weathered the storm long enough for shooting to even out. And when it did, South Carolina found its own stroke from beyond the arc. Meechie Johnson got two in a row to go down late in the first half and Ta’Lon Cooper hit three for the game, aiding a comeback effort which saw South Carolina close the deficit within two points at the half.

The 40-38 halftime score marked the worst defensive first half of the season for South Carolina.

It did not hold up.

Just as it has all season, South Carolina found its defense in a tight spot. In particular, two separate stretches of over four minutes where the Bulldogs did not score a point flipped the afternoon.

For 4:58 through a critical second half juncture, the Gamecocks bowed up. Josh Gray and Collin Murray-Boyles took shifts clogging up the paint, and the perimeter defense stayed as stingy.

"He's finding a more consistent way about his game," Paris said about Gray. "He knows who he is, he knows for the most part what to stick to, what path to follow, where to go and how to get back on the path if he gets off track."

Finally South Carolina took its first lead since it was 2-0 in the opening seconds when Zachary Davis blew by his defender and scored on a baseline drive with 14:02 to go. Gray went on a personal 4-0 run with a pair of dunks to close out an 8-0 run for his team, capping off by far his best day of the season. The senior forward scored 15 points with eight rebounds, flirting with what would have been the first double-double by a South Carolina player in SEC play this season.

Murray-Boyles also scored his SEC career-high with 16 points and almost broke new ground near his season-high of 17 as South Carolina slowly squeezed life out of the hosts.

In a season full of firsts and milestones, South Carolina will go for another one on Tuesday night. The fifth-straight league win ties the second-longest streak since the school joined the SEC, and the only clip longer than five was an 11-game mark all the way back in 1996-97.

There will be a chance for six Tuesday night at Colonial Life Arena against Ole Miss, a night which will almost surely be South Carolina’s first as a top-25 team in seven years.

"I'm gonna say at least top 20, in my opinion," Murray-Boyles laughed when asked where the Gamecocks should be ranked. "But we don't really care about that."

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