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On the road without a key player and following a big week that saw it make a big jump in the rankings, Arkansas could have experienced an emotional letdown Tuesday night.
Instead, Moses Moody matched his career high with 28 points and the No. 12 Razorbacks left no doubt en route to a dominant 101-73 win over South Carolina inside Colonial Life Arena.
They trailed for only four minutes and led by 25-plus points the final eight minutes of the game, helping extend their SEC winning streak to 10 games – one shy of matching the 1993-94 team’s school record – and clinch a second-place finish in the conference with a 20-5 (12-4 SEC) record.
“I was overly concerned with the game,” head coach Eric Musselman admitted afterward. “I was concerned about all the emotion that we poured into last week and where was our emotional tank? Was it on empty or not? It was full.”
It was the first time Arkansas has scored 100 points in an SEC game since winning 101-87 at Auburn six years ago, with a big chunk of its damage coming from beyond the arc.
The Razorbacks made 15 three-pointers, which was their most since making 16 against Mississippi State in 2016 and their second-most ever in an SEC road game, according to HogStats. They also did it on 33 attempts, meaning they were an efficient 45.5 percent.
That was a stark contrast to Arkansas’ previous nine wins in the conference winning streak. It had shot just 32.1 percent on 18 attempts per game during that stretch.
“We’ve been really focused on getting free throws attempted and trying to score paint points,” Musselman said. “We did not talk much at all leading up to this game about paint points. We didn’t over-emphasize the three, but I did think that we were going to be able to get more three-ball looks.”
The first eight minutes of the game were actually pretty tight, with eight lead changes and neither team leading by more than a possession.
With freshman Jaylin Williams unavailable because of COVID-19 protocols, 7-foot-3 big man Connor Vanover was asked to take on a bigger role against a team that didn’t necessarily fit his style of play, as the Gamecocks play with one of the fastest tempos in the country.
However, Vanover made his presence felt early. Before the first media timeout, he grabbed three rebounds, blocked three shots and altered several more.
On the other end of the floor, the Razorbacks relied heavily on Moody. The star freshman actually had 11 of their 14 points when it was tied up 14-14 at the 12:34 mark in the first half.
At that point, Arkansas began its three-point barrage and knocked down six in a six-minute stretch to build a 10-point lead, with four of them coming from an unlikely candidate: Desi Sills.
It was the veteran’s three with 12:03 remaining that put the Razorbacks up for good and he ended up making his first four attempts before finally missing one. He finished with 15 points – all coming on a career-high five three-pointers in seven attempts – after scoring a total of 13 points over the previous six games combined.
“It felt great to see my shot fall, but at the end of the day when you’re in a slump and you stayed in the gym no matter if you’re playing or not, the work is always going to come back and it pays off,” Sills said. “It paid off tonight.”
JD Notae made a three-pointer to make it a 12-point game at the 2:25 mark and Arkansas led by double digits the rest of the way. He added a tough bucket just before the buzzer to put the Razorbacks up 49-32 at halftime and cap a hot-shooting half.
They were 18 of 33 (54.5 percent) from the floor, including 10 of 20 from deep, compared to South Carolina’s 12-of-43 (27.9 percent) and 3-of-13 (23.1 percent) shooting. The only thing keeping the Gamecocks from getting completely blown out were their 10 offensive rebounds that led to 11 second-chance points.
Even without Williams, arguably the team’s best defensive rebounder, Arkansas got that turned around in the second half. South Carolina managed one second-chance point on three offensive boards after halftime.
“They got 13 offensive rebounds, but there were a lot of opportunities for offensive rebounds tonight,” Musselman said. “Our goal tonight was to hold them to 10 or less offensive rebounds, so we were minus-3 on our goal, but I thought we did a pretty good job for the most part of folding back and getting defensive rebounds.”
The Gamecocks shot the ball better in the second half, but Arkansas kept up its hot start throughout the entire game and – coupled with the better job on the boards – managed to turn it into a rout.
A three-pointer by Vance Jackson Jr. actually put the Razorbacks up by 32 points with about four minute left and they were able to coast the rest of the way, with Notae’s jumper in the final minute giving them triple digits.
After shooting only 22.5 percent from the floor the last three games, Moody’s shot started falling again Tuesday night. His 28 points came on 10 of 15 shooting, plus he made 4 of 9 threes, was a perfect 4 of 4 on free throws and added seven rebounds.
“He just opens up the floor for us so much,” Musselman said. “He never really takes a bad shot. It’s hard for a player to go 10 of 15 from the field. … He’s playing at an incredible level.”
He was one of three Razorbacks with at least 20 points in the blowout.
Justin Smith matched his season high with 22 points and grabbed eight boards, finishing two rebounds shy of his third straight double-double. He’s averaging 17.3 points on 63.6 percent shooting and 10 rebounds in Arkansas’ last three games.
“We ran some plays for him tonight,” Musselman said. “We had him handling it in pick and roll. We posted him up in the mid-post a couple of times. I thought he did a great job in our hot attack in the middle of the zone.”
Coming off the bench, JD Notae continued his solid play of late by contributing 21 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists and a career-high-tying 5 steals. According to STATS, he’s the first major conference non-starter with a 20-5-5-5 game since Arizona’s Miles Simon in 1997.
“We’ve been able to send him a lot of clips, so I think he understood we wanted him to have a little bit better shot selection and we wanted him to share the ball a little more,” Musselman said. “We know he’s a great creator and being able to score on his own, or at least getting shot attempts on his own, and we wanted him to become more of a point guard and I think you’re seeing that evolve right now.”
The Razorbacks are scheduled to wrap up the regular season with a home game against Texas A&M on Saturday. Tip off is set for 4 p.m. CT and the game will be televised on the SEC Network.
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