No. 4 Gamecocks dwarf Razorbacks

Arkansas' Malica Monk gets her shot blocked by South Carolina's Mikah Harrigan during a game Sunday Feb. 5, 2017, at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville. South Carolina won 79-49.

FAYETTEVILLE — Alaina Coates and the rest of South Carolina’s inside presence was more than Arkansas could handle Sunday.

Coates, a 6-4 senior center, scored 18 points and grabbed a career-high 19 rebounds and A’ja Wilson, a 6-3 junior, added another 18 points as the No. 4-ranked Gamecocks stayed atop the SEC standings with a 79-49 road victory in Bud Walton Arena.

South Carolina went to Coates and Wilson early and often on Sunday, making full utilization of a mismatch in personnel against the Razorbacks.

“Over the course of my career I’ve kind of gone on stretches where I went on a lull in my play,” said Coates, who broke her previous career high of 18 rebounds on Thursday night against Kentucky. “So I’m just trying to make sure I don’t have those lulls, especially being a significant part to the team.”

Arkansas (13-10, 2-8 SEC) couldn’t keep South Carolina off the boards and scoring against the South Carolina defense was just as difficult.

The Razorbacks finished 18 of 65 from the field (28 percent) and were 6 of 9 shooting from three-point range.

“As long as they are, what you think is open and what is normally open isn’t,” Arkansas Coach Jimmy Dykes said. “We only turned it over 13 times and felt good about that and got some good looks at transition (3 pointers), but their size and the skill of those two kids, Wilson and Coates. They just don’t drop balls, they get it, they’re tough and they can move and run.”

South Carolina (20-2, 10-1) scored the game’s first seven points and led by as many as 14 points in the first quarter. The Gamecocks led 43-25 at the half.

Coates made 8 of 11 from the field and Wilson 5 of 9 as South Carolina increased its lead to as many as 33 points early in the fourth quarter.

“We knew coming into the game where our strength would be. It would be in our post,” Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley said. “They do a really good job of playing off of each other. They’ve played together for a very long time, and we made sure they got the touches early in case they were sagging in on us.

“Which they did. They tried to sit in our post players. But we tried to keep the ball high and put it in a place where only our post players could be effective, which was a high-low action.”

Aaliyah Wilson provided the one bright spot for Arkansas, as the freshman scored 16 points on 6 of 13 shooting off the bench.

The Razorbacks visit Florida at 6 p.m. Thursday and South Carolina hosts Auburn at 6 p.m. Thursday.

In other games Sunday involving Top 25 SEC teams, Dominique Dillingham scored a career-high 24 points and No. 5 Mississippi State forced 29 turnovers to beat Missouri, 70-53. Looking for separation after a tight first quarter that saw MSU lead 18-17, the Bulldogs got it from Dillingham. The senior leader scored 13 of her 16 first-half points in the second quarter. The Bulldogs (22-1, 8-1 SEC) scored the first 11 points of the third quarter to extend the advantage to 47-27 to put the game away against Missouri (16-7, 6-4). … Makayla Epps scored 23 points, moving into fifth place on the Kentucky career scoring list, and grabbed eight rebounds and the No. 25 Wildcats defeated Vanderbilt, 71-63. The senior guard, who also had five assists, jumped two places on the all-time list with 1,620 points. Evelyn Akhator added 20 points and 8 rebounds and Taylor Murray 18 points and 7 assists. The Wildcats (16-8, 7-4 SEC), coming off back-to-back conference losses, made only 2 of 14 three-point attempts but dominated scoring in the paint 42-22 and took advantage of a lopsided freethrow margin, making 19 of 22 to 3 of 4 for Vanderbilt. The Commodores (11-12, 1-9) outshot and outrebounded Kentucky but committed 21 turnovers.

TOP 25 WOMEN

UConn up to 97

STORRS, Conn. — Napheesa Collier scored 24 points and pulled down nine rebounds to lead top-ranked UConn to its 97th consecutive victory, 96-50 over Tulsa on Sunday.

The sophomore hit 10 of her 13 shots from the floor in reaching the 20-point plateau for the 12th time this season.

Saniya Chong added 17 points, 7 assists and 7 rebounds for the Huskies (22-0, 10-0 American Athletic Conference), who have now won 124 consecutive games against unranked opponents.

UConn’s Katie Lou Samuelson, who has reached double digits in every game this season, had 16 points. Kia Nurse had 14 and Gabby Williams chipped in with 10.

Freshman Shug Dickson had 12 points lead Tulsa (8-15, 4-6).