After a double overtime heart-breaking loss to Ole Miss Sunday, the Arkansas Lady Razorback basketball team (18-7, 3-6 Southeastern Conference) looks to bounce back and break a four-game losing streak tonight against South Carolina (13-11, 3-6 SEC) in Bud Walton Arena.
South Carolina will also be coming to Fayetteville with its own losing streak. The Lady Gamecocks have lost two straight following a 49-46 loss to LSU last weekend.
South Carolina is 0-4 on the road in the SEC this year and has a 0-8 all-time record in Fayetteville against the Lady’Backs.
In their meeting last year, the Lady Gamecocks defeated the Lady’Backs 61-52 in Columbia, S.C. Leslie Howard led the Lady’Backs in points with 13 and shot 3 of 9 from the 3-point range. The last meeting in Fayetteville resulted in a 61-49 victory in favor of the Lady’Backs.
South Carolina will be coming to Fayetteville with one of the best defenses in the SEC. The Lady Gamecocks currently rank third in scoring defense and allow opponents to shoot just 36 percent. The Lady Gamecocks also rank second in rebounding and rank first in blocked shots per game with six.
South Carolina is averaging 12 steals a game, which ranks third in the league.
Both teams will have dominating forces in the paint tonight. The Lady’Backs’ Lauren Ervin enters tonight’s game averaging 13 points, 10 rebounds and two blocks a game while the Lady Gamecock’s center Lakesha Tolliver averages seven points, four rebounds a block per game. Ervin and Tolliver are third and fourth in the league respectively for blocked shots per game.
Ervin is coming off a career high 22-point game against Ole Miss. Ervin also pulled down 10 rebounds, which was her 10th double-double performance of the season.
The Lady Gamecocks are a deep team that uses a lot of players. South Carolina has nine players that average more than 15 minutes per game and have eight players that average at least six points per game, while its leading scorer Lauren Simms only averages nine a game. Both Simms and Lea Fabbri average three assists a game.
South Carolina’s greatest strength is height, which helps the Lady Gamecocks attain their 9.5 rebound margin and league leading six blocks a game. Ilona Burgrova, who averages 21 minutes a game, is the tallest player at 6’6, but the Lady Gamecocks also have players at 6’5, 6’4 and 6’3. South Carolina has seven players that are at least six feet tall.
The game tonight with South Carolina is scheduled for a 6 p.m. tip-off and is being televised by Fox Sports South.
With a win tonight, the Lady’Backs would take sole position of ninth place in SEC play, breaking a tie with South Carolina. The loser of this game will fall to 10th in the league and be ahead of both Florida and Alabama, who both are winless with a 0-9 SEC record apiece.
With four games remaining on the schedule after the South Carolina game, three of four teams are currently ranked. No. 3 Tennessee, No. 7 LSU and No. 9 Georgia still remain on the schedule. The other remaining opponent in the regular season is Kentucky (4-5 SEC).