It was another long afternoon for Coach Horn's Gamecocks, who fell to the Arkansas Razorbacks today, 76-65. The Hogs used a strong close to the first half to build a lead, and they coasted to the victory in the second half. Damontre Harris led Carolina with 12 points to go along with 11 rebounds, while Arkansas's B.J. Young led all scorers with 27.
The story of the game for Carolina was turnovers. The Gamecocks did not take care of the ball, particularly in the first half, and finished with 21 turnovers. The other negative to note was Carolina's extremely poor 3FG shooting. The Gamecocks were 5-25 from long range in this game. Damien Leonard was 2-8. Carolina shot the ball fairly well otherwise, and I was impressed by our play in the paint, although Malik Cooke didn't play very well. One positive to be noted in this regard was that Carolina made it to the charity stripe 21 times, which is a result of focusing on attacking the basket a bit more. However, no amount of strong interior play can offset the turnovers and poor long-range shooting, at least not against a team like Arkansas that plays well in its home environment.
Carolina takes on the Georgia Bulldogs this week in a mid-week game. Last week, I would have said that this game provides a nice opportunity for Carolina to pick up a win, but after seeing Georgia start to turn its season around with consecutive wins over Arkansas and now at Mississippi St. (!!!), I'm not so sure.