Moody leads No. 12 Arkansas past South Carolina 101-73

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Moses Moody tied his career high with 28 points and No. 12 Arkansas won its 10th straight in the Southeastern Conference with a 101-73 victory over South Carolina on Tuesday night.
 
The Razorbacks (20-5, 12-4 SEC) did it with the long ball, hitting 15 3-pointers to continue its longest league win streak to match the 1994 national champions who won their last 10 SEC regular-season games that year.
 
Moody had four 3-pointers as Arkansas reached 20 victories for a second straight year under coach Eric Musselman.
 
The Razorbacks got going from way outside in the first half to open a double-digit lead that South Carolina (6-13, 4-11) could not overcome.
 
Justin Smith had had 22 points, JD Notae 21 and Desi Sills 15, tying his career high with five 3-pointers.
 
Arkansas, a middle of the SEC pack team in three-point shooting percentage, couldn’t miss in a first half that looked more like practice than an SEC game.
 
The Razorbacks made 10 of 20 from behind the arc on the way to a 49-32 halftime lead.
Leading scorer Moody hit three 3-pointers while Sills made his first four before he bounced a long one off the rim.
 
Arkansas made 20 3-pointers in its opening win over Mississippi Valley in November. It’s previous high in SEC play this season was 12 in a 99-69 drubbing of Georgia in January. And they used the long ball to pull away early.
 
Sills’ first 3-poiner put Arkansas up for good at 17-14. Moody made it 26-18 with his second three of the half. Even 7-foot-3 Connor Vanover got into the act, nailing an open shot from the right corner. By the time Sills made back-to-back threes, the Razorbacks were up 32-22 and wouldn’t be caught.
 
It didn’t help that South Carolina’s top two scorers in AJ Lawson and Keyshawn Bryant were a combined 4-of-20 shooting for 10 points the first 20 minutes.
 
Lawson led the Gamecocks with 18 points.
 
Moody, the smooth, 6-foot-6 freshman, finished 10-of-15 shooting with seven rebounds.

KEY STATS
> Arkansas shot 55.9 percent (37-for-67) from the field and made 15 shots from behind the arc.

NOTABLES
> Junior guard AJ Lawson led South Carolina with 18 points, knocking down four 3s. The Toronto native has now scored in double figures 17 times in the 2020-21 season, including 14 of 15 league games.
> Junior forward Keyshawn Bryant had 13 points and a team-high nine rebounds.
> Sophomore big man Jalyn McCreary was 5-for-7 from the floor en route to scoring 10 points, his first game in double-figures this season (third career).

UP NEXT
Carolina travels to face Kentucky (8-14, 7-8 SEC) on Saturday at Rupp Arena in the regular-season finale for both schools.  Tip time versus the Wildcats is set for noon (ET) on ESPN.

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