Even sizzling Sonny Weems ’ career-high 28 points and Steven Hill’s career-high first half couldn’t prevent little South Carolina guard Devan Downey from cutting the bigger Razorbacks down to size on their home court.

With the 5-9 Downey scoring 28 big points, including both ends of a game-cinching one-and-one with 9. 5 seconds left, the heretofore SEC-winless Gamecocks beat heretofore SEC-unbeaten Arkansas, 70-66 Wednesday night at Walton Arena.

The victory advances Dave Odom’s Gamecocks to 9-8, 1-2 in the SEC East going into their next SEC game against Florida Jan. 23 in Columbia, S. C.

Arkansas falls to 13-4, 2-1 in the SEC West and visits SEC East rival Georgia at 6 p. m. Saturday in Athens.

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Downey not only scored 28 but dished four assists while spearheading an aggressive, quick South Carolina defense that forced 19 Arkansas turnovers while the Gamecocks only committed 10.

The finish virtually was Downey vs. Weems. USC was up, 66-61 when Weems nailed a 3-pointer to pull Arkansas within 66-64 with 52 seconds left.

Downey appeared to put a dagger in Arkansas’ heart with a 2-point jumper for a 68-64 lead with 23 seconds left. Weems came right back with his own 2-point jumper with 11 seconds later.

The Gamecocks wisely inbounded to Downey, leaving Arkansas no choice but to foul him.

“ Devan teased us with those last two free throws, ” Odom said. “ I think they bounced around on every part of the rim, but they went in. We hit our free throws [12 of 15 ] and Devan made 9 of 11. We played well down the stretch to beat what I think is one of the best teams in the SEC. They are big and old and we are not and they were at home. But crazy things happen in the SEC. ”

There wasn’t anything crazy about Downey doing what he did, Arkansas coach John Pelphrey said.

“ We knew he’s a great player, ” Pelphrey said of the sophomore transfer from the University of Cincinnati. “ We knew he was unguardable by himself. We had to try and make it our team against him. ”

And the homecourt advantage, too.

“ I thought our fans were going to bail us out again, ” Pelphrey said of the Hogs coming off an overtime victory over Alabama at Walton. “ But South Carolina played better than we did. Give them credit. ”

Odom was equally complimentary of Weems, the Arkansas senior small forward from West Memphis.

“ I thought Weems was going to springboard them to stardom, ” Odom said.

Weems scored 21 secondhalf points.

“ It doesn’t matter, ” Weems said when asked what opened things up for him in the second stanza. “ Points and all that don’t matter because we lost. Our team is hurting right now. Give credit to Downey. He’s a great player.

“ We let him get their offense going in the first half, and I knew right then it was going to be a tough game for us. ”

Meanwhile, Downey said he was rankled from hearing how tough it was going to be.

“ We were tired of the media focusing on the negative side of our season, ” Downey said. “ So all we could do was play hard and try to pull one out. Fortunately we were able to hit free throws down the stretch. ”

The 7-foot Hill and 5-9 Downey were the long and short of it in a first half South Carolina led, 33-32 after trailing, 30-23.

“ Ending the half the way we did was very important to us, ” Odom said.

Hill had never exceeded nine points in a game this 2007-08 season but scored a dozen in the first half on tipins and dunks and one hook. He finished with 15 points while senior forward Charles Thomas scored 11.

South Carolina guard Zam Fredrick scored 14 points to support Downey while forward Dominique Archie scored 10.

Downey scored 14 firsthalf points. He downed one trey but mainly scored in the first half scurrying inside for layups before Arkansas ’ tall frontline could get set to defend against him.

The Gamecocks’ 10-2 run in the half’s final 3: 30 coincided with Arkansas guard Patrick Beverley sitting with his second foul.

Arkansas outebounded USC 17-9 in the first half but the Gamecocks compensated by committing four less turnovers and sinking three more threes than did the Hogs.

Arkansas exerted its height on the boards to outrebound the Gamecocks, 40-24, though once again it was Beverley, only 6-1, grabbing the most boards with 12.

However, Arkansas’ big men paid a price chasing the Gamecocks ’ smaller frontline around the floor.

“ We took a page out of Auburn’s book, ” Odom said of Auburn troubling Arkansas before the Hogs won, 76-70 at Auburn. “ They [Auburn ] are a lot like we are in we are not very big. We spread them out to get one if not both of their big men away from the basket and get some driving layups. ”

Those layups enabled South Carolina to beat the Hogs inside-out.

The Gamecocks outscored Arkansas, 24-9 on 3-pointers.