What went wrong in South Carolina’s 28-point loss to Arkansas
Whatever spark the South Carolina men’s basketball team found in its 21-point win at Georgia on Saturday didn’t make it on the ride home from Athens.
Of course, it didn’t help that the Gamecocks hosted one of the hottest teams in the Southeastern Conference.
Riding a streak of nine-straight SEC wins, No. 12 Arkansas (20-5, 12-4 SEC) secured a 10th straight conference win at Colonial Life Arena on Tuesday, defeating the Gamecocks, 101-73.
With the loss, Frank Martin’s team fell to 6-13 (4-11) on the season with just one game — a Saturday trip to Kentucky — remaining on the regular season schedule.
“It’s just one of them years, man. One of them years,” Martin said. “We got good parts. And when the parts play well together, we represent our team the right way. But obviously, more times than not our parts have not connected. We got a lot of guys who are playing for ‘me’ and not ‘we,’ and that’s unfortunate.”
3 Observations from USC-Arkansas
1. Can’t stop Moody
A common trend from the South Carolina defense this season has been an inability to stop an opposing team’s top guard. In recent weeks, guards like Ole Miss’ Devontae Shuler (31 points) and Mississippi State’s D.J. Stewart (29 points) have put up career-high totals against the Gamecocks.
While South Carolina was effective in bottling up Georgia star point guard Sahvir Wheeler on Saturday, the Gamecocks had no such success against Arkansas freshman Moses Moody.
The long 6-foot-6 guard showcased his natural scoring ability from the get-go, slicing through the South Carolina defense to score near the rim while also making four 3-pointers. He tied his career high with 28 points.
“Moody is good, but we made it really easy for him,” Martin said. “I don’t think he even broke a sweat trying to score. We were undisciplined. We gambled off of him. They got good players. And when you let good players feel comfortable, they play really, really good. And we never made them uncomfortable.
“And that’s what you get when you play one of the top 15 teams in the country.”
2. Hogs excel from deep
While South Carolina held its own inside, matching Arkansas with 39 total rebounds and outscoring the Hogs 34-26 inside the paint, the Gamecocks allowed a bevy of open looks on the perimeter. And the Razorbacks took advantage repeatedly.
South Carolina came into the game ranking 13th in the 14-team SEC and 270th in the country in 3-point field-goal defense, allowing opponents to shoot at a 35.4% clip.
The Razorbacks sunk 10 3-pointers in the first half alone, making half of their attempts, which allowed them to build a commanding 17-point lead.
“Defensively, early in the game, we’re in that zone, and they were kind of standing around trying to figure out how to attack the zone,” Martin said. “And then we went man. And when we went man, they came at us, and we put up zero fight ... We had no resolve defensively.”
Given their lead, the Hogs took fewer shots from deep in the second half but still finished with 15 3-pointers on 33 attempts. Arkansas shot 55% from the field overall.
3. Shots don’t fall for USC
The Gamecocks kept pace with Arkansas early in the game, forcing turnovers on the defensive end and scoring on the fast break. Then the Razorbacks started nailing 3-pointers, and USC couldn’t answer.
The Gamecocks shot a paltry 28% in the first half and made just three of 13 3-point attempts. Both Martin and junior Keyshawn Bryant said those struggles were the result of selfish basketball. While the Gamecocks made a concerted effort to drive the ball inside in the game’s opening minutes, Bryant said they became too “shot hungry” once the Hogs starting making shots.
“We was playing aggressive, getting to the lane, but we tried to play their game and shoot 3s, which that didn’t work out,” Bryant said. “So just going into the next game, we just got to continue to keep playing aggressive and play aggressive on both ends — offense and defense.”
Bryant finished with 13 points and a team-leading nine rebounds. Leading scorer A.J. Lawson eventually started hitting shots in the second half, making four 3-pointers and finishing with a team-high 18 points, but he was the only Gamecock who could consistently score from the perimeter. The Gamecocks finished with six 3-pointers compared to 15 for the Razorbacks.
Next USC basketball game
Who: South Carolina (6-13, 4-11 SEC) at Kentucky (8-14, 7-8)
Where: Rupp Arena, Lexington, Kentucky
When: Noon Saturday
Watch: ESPN
This story was originally published March 2, 2021 at 8:20 PM.
