Putrid Offensive Production Hampers Hogs Against South Carolina

Musselman's Razorbacks unable to capture A&M magic in latest poor showing

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — For the second time this season, Arkansas got pummeled on its home floor, this time by South Carolina, 77-64.

"We’ve now had two home games where we’re not exhibiting the energy that we need to, coach Eric Musselman said. "So obviously toughness, rebounding, offensively sharing the ball. There’s a whole bunch of stuff."

The fans were begging for anything to cheer for and Tramon Mark gave that to them for a brief moment. With the Razorbacks discombobulated on offense, he hit back-to-back jumpers to cut the lead to 49-41. South Carolina, responded with a 15-4 run that put away the wire-to-wire victory. The Gamecocks rode  BJ Mack's game-high 18 points and a 39-27 rebounding advantage to drop the Hogs to 1-4 in SEC play. 

Arkansas was unable to duplicate the blazing start against Texas A&M. The South Carolina Gamecocks came into the game with the best scoring defense in the SEC and the Razorbacks felt the full wrath of it in the early exchanges, forcing a shot clock violation on the second possession. South Carolina used two early triples to jump out to a 17-10 lead. 

Arkansas Razorbacks guard Tramon Mark puts up a shot in a 77-64 loss to South Carolina at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville, Ark., on Saturday :: Andy Hodges / allHOGS Images

South Carolina seemed content with shooting the three and continued to make them, In the absence of Myles Stute, the team's top deep threat, Mack made all three of his triples in the first half. An ensuing dunk forced Musselman to burn two timeouts within 30 seconds of each other as the Gamecocks stretched the lead to 29-19.

"We played against a good team that played with more energy and more connective-ness and more toughness than we played with," Musselman said. 

After starting 6-for-12 from the field, the shotmaking from Arkansas came to a frozen standstill. The Hogs finished the half 5-for-19 (26%). The final 20 seconds perfectly encapsulated the first half. Trevon Brazile committed a foul on the floor to put the Gamecocks at the line before Makhel Mitchell got called for an offensive foul on the final Razorback possession. Thankfully, the Hogs did not come to grips giving South Carolina the ball back with 9 seconds left, but still trailed 39-27 after 20 minutes.

Outside of the quick spurt from Mark, the Razorbacks were outplayed in every facet of the game and did not come out with any additional energy in the second half. South Carolina shot better from the field and more than doubled the Razorbacks in assists 20-9.  

"I couldn’t tell you," guard Jeremiah Davenport said about the slow start. "Plain and simple. I have no idea. I don’t know if it’s the early game. The difference between early and night games, I don’t know. We just started out slow."

The Razorbacks look to bounce back on the road against Ole Miss 8 p.m. Jan. 24. The game will be broadcast on ESPNU and fuboTV.

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