Gamecocks talk it over, play better

FAYETTEVILLE — A couple of players-only meetings after practices, one that included a pep talk by former South Carolina football great Duce Staley, put a spur in the side of the Gamecocks after their 80-56 home loss to Tennessee on Saturday.

“When you lose a game by 24 and everybody’s telling you how bad you are, you walk around campus and everybody’s telling you how bad you are, it doesn’t feel good,” South Carolina guard Devan Downey said. “So we had to do something about it.”

What the Gamecocks did was take a team that was projected to finish sixth in the SEC East and go to the home court of the team picked to finish first in the SEC West and seize a 70-66 upset on Wednesday.

Downey, a transfer from Cincinnati, played the biggest role by scoring 28 points while playing all 40 minutes. The 5-9 guard scored on an array of jumpers, high-arcing layups and three-point shots, and a 9-for-11 performance at the free-throw line.

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“When you’re a small guy, over the years you just have to find so many tricks [to score ],” Downey said. “At the end, I saw that [Patrick Beverley ] was leaning towards me like he was wanting to jump. I knew if I could pump fake and get him in the air, I could get two [free throw ] shots. So that’s what I did.”

Downey’s two free throws with 9. 5 seconds left were the final points of the game, effectively sealing the rare road victory for South Carolina.

The Gamecocks were outrebounded 40-24, but many of their 10 offensive boards resulted in putbacks, like Dominique Archie’s follow slam that made it 58-55 with 6: 07 remaining, and second-chance baskets.

Downey, who brought a 19. 1 scoring average into the game, is making a strong play for SEC Newcomer of the Year. Downey’s D

Twice in the first five minutes, Arkansas cashed in field goals after 5-9 South Carolina guard Devan Downey was forced to switch off onto Arkansas big men in the Gamecocks’ man-to-man.

Sonny Weems, a 6-6 forward, hit a 10-footer from the left baseline on Downey, who was rubbed off on a screen with Stefan Welsh on the dribble.

A few minutes later, the whole Walton Arena crowd seemed to catch Downey switching off onto Steven Hill, giving the 7-foot Razorbacks center a 15-inch height advantage. With the noise level rising, Welsh saw the outrageous mismatch and quickly fed Hill, who pumped in a bank shot from point-blank range. Oop tip

Arkansas guard Gary Ervin dribbled through the lane once, hovered on the right wing to reassess the defense, then cut into the lane horizontally with dribble penetration.

Just when it looked like his attempt at a runner from 8 feet was way off the mark, the solution appeared. Big 7-foot Steven Hill swooped in and put a delicate one-hand tip on the ball to score his third bucket with 7: 41 remaining in the first half.

“Playing together for two or three years now, me and Gary kind of know each other to a certain extent and he has a lot of confidence in those passes,” Hill said. “We made a little eye contact and that’s how it happened.”

Hill’s tip started a streak in which he scored eight consecutive Arkansas points over a span of 3: 10 that ended with the Hogs ahead 27-23. Hill’s 12 first-half points marked a season scoring high for the senior. Draining Downey

South Carolina guard Devan Downey opened the game on a hot streak. The undersized Downey drove for a layup and nailed a deep, fadeaway threepointer in the opening minutes, then put a layup high over two defenders and off the top of the glass to give Carolina a 15-14 lead at the 10: 06 mark of the first half.

Just when it seemed Downey couldn’t miss from anywhere, the 5-9 jitterbug misfired on the second of two free throws with 8: 20 remaining in the half.

At that point, Downey already had 12 points on 5-of-5 shooting. The 19. 1-point-pergame scorer had 14 points by halftime and matched it with 14 more in the second half. Malfunctions

The first half was disrupted for a couple of minutes because of problems with the game clock. First, the clock was stuck on 18: 32 after a basket by South Carolina’s Devan Downey and needed a stoppage of play to make a readjustment to 18: 10.

Moments later, with the Gamecocks in possession, the horn sounded once, then twice, requiring another stoppage of play to correct the clock.