Arkansas matched the score with a trio of teams from the Southeast Conference, but is now heading east to face an opponent who comes from one of his best games this season.
Coach Eric Musselman will take his Razorbacks in 20th place to Columbia, SC, to face the South Carolina Gamecocks on Tuesday in a fight that could have had a different perspective before the weekend.
Winner of nine consecutive SEC games, Arkansas (19-5, 11-4 SEC) ended February with a perfect 6-0 mark in a home rally to beat LSU on Saturday, knocking Tigers down 83-75 and hitting the score after a 16-point loss on January 13 at Baton Rouge.
With less than 10 points in the first half and five in the break, the Hogs increased the pace and took the best of their opponent bayou, despite a final sequence of 13-2 LSU.
The Razorbacks took Musselman’s stimulating conversation seriously.
“The main message at the break was to be strong, stop making mistakes, get off two feet,” said Musselman, in his second year in Arkansas. “Draw contact. Attempt to draw free throws. And then, we’ve said that since the Alabama game, you can’t beat LSU if you don’t beat them on the rebound.
“I thought that our recovery in the second half was absolutely fantastic.”
The Razorbacks defeated two other opponents who defeated them in their first clashes: an 86-81 victory in overtime against Missouri on February 13 and an 81-66 victory over Alabama on Wednesday.
Musselman credited the team’s top scorer Moses Moody (16.6 points per game) in the comeback on Senior Citizens Day.
Moody scored double digits in all competitions during the productive month and seven in a row overall. The Little Rock, Arkansas native has scored at least 11 points in 21 of the team’s 24 matches.
“I think the key to basketball, a big key, is to get free throws and attack hard. And Moses is doing that,” added Musselman.
South Carolina led almost the entire game, exhibited a torrid display of kicks and broke their streak of six straight losses in the 91-70 rout in Georgia on Saturday in Athens, Georgia.
Gamecocks (6-12, 4-10) will need to double Saturday’s shooting against the Bulldogs to beat Arkansas at the first school meeting.
After dropping just 29 percent of its shots on Wednesday against the other SEC Bulldogs – State of Mississippi – South Carolina illuminated Georgia with 53.6 percent accuracy, accompanied by the season’s 23-point record, by Jermaine Couisnard.
The victory was the Gamecocks’ tenth consecutive victory over Georgia – the last loss at the SEC tournament in Nashville, Tennessee, in 2016.
Entering the game with an average of 9.3 points per game, Couisnard hit 8 out of 16 field shots, including four treys, and finished just before his 28th career record last season against Ole Miss.
“I give all (credit) to my teammates, because it was they who kept me up during all the things I was going through,” said Couisnard, who recently returned from an ankle injury. “I was told to keep playing the ball and not lose confidence.”
– Field-level media