FAYETTEVILLE — John Pelphrey spends some practice every day preparing for situations.

One day, when it was time to work on Steven Hill getting out of a double team, Hill looked at him and said, “Yeah, right.”

Hill, a 7-foot athlete, is like Andrew Lang, who played for the Arkansas Razorbacks in the 1980 s. Neither looks to score. Lang was a better rebounder, Hill a better shot blocker.

On Wednesday night, South Carolina didn’t double on Hill.

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The Gamecocks had fronted and backed on Darian Townes, who was coming off an 18-point performance against Alabama, but Hill got single coverage, once by 5-9 (probably 5-7 ) Devan Downey.

So Hill scored 12 first-half points, including eight in a row, and in the second half he came out aggressive, going after offensive rebounds. By then, South Carolina was getting backside help on him.

With Hill hitting, the Hogs should have rolled. But instead the only time they could slow Downey was when freshman Marcus Britt was on him, and the Razorbacks’ perimeter defense was far too soft for a team that shoots as well as South Carolina.

By the time the Gamecocks led 50-46, they had made eight threepointers, mostly uncontested.

The curse of the Hogs returned Wednesday night, too.

Turnovers happened at an alarming rate, and South Carolina turned most of the mental mistakes into field goals. That contributed heavily to a 54-46 lead with 11: 23 to play.

After a timeout and a minute with a severely disappointed Pelphrey, the Razorbacks started to work their offense.

Too often, they jack a shot after one pass or sometimes none.

After Gary Ervin tossed up a hook that caught the side of the backboard and then a quick air ball, Sonny Weems got in the flow by making something out of nothing.

He grabbed a loose ball after a miss, banked it in, and less than a minute later hit a baseline jumper to cut it to 56-53 with 7: 40 to play.

By then, the late-arriving crowd was on its feet and Bud Walton was roaring.

The Razorbacks defense responded, and suddenly South Carolina was colder than an Alaskan New Year.

When Weems stuck a jumper from the right baseline, a Phantom jet could have taken off inside Bud Walton and no one would have heard it.

South Carolina got a rebound basket, but Charles Thomas made a pair of free throws and it was 58-57 with 5: 41 to play.

Downey threw an inbound pass out of bounds, and seconds later Hill tied it with 1 of 2 from the free-throw line.

Arkansas’ defense was manning up, and with two seconds on the shot clock Downey tossed up a 25-foot prayer that got nothing. He was fouled, however, and made all three free throws for a 61-58 lead, which went to 63-58 on a rebound tip.

Townes missed a pair of free throws, but after a South Carolina miss, Beverley went in for a layup and got a goaltending call to make it a one-possession game until Downey drew yet another foul when he had no shot and made one free throw.

Arkansas turned it over — AGAIN — and the Gamecocks again worked the shot clock down, but a three-point attempt was flat. Hill rebounded, was fouled and went to the line where he made both for a 64-61 game with 1: 27 to play.

A late whistle sent Dominque Archie to the line, where he made both, and when the announcement came there was one minute to play the Hogs trailed 66-61.

Weems stepped up again, and when his three went through he had 26 points and the home team had a shot. But Downey, who had 26 points, scored again and South Carolina’s lead was 68-64.

Weems hit another jumper quickly, and with 11. 8 seconds to play it was 68-66 and only a few had left early.

A quick foul on Downey ended up in a 70-66 lead, and that was the final score and the Hogs had their first SEC loss, which should never happen when you outrebound a team by 16 and Steven Hill scores 15 points.