The 12-seed Arkansas Razorbacks saw their season come to an end Thursday evening with an 80-66 loss to the 5-seed and 15th-ranked South Carolina Gamecocks in the second round of the SEC Tournament at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee.
Arkansas posted a 16-17 overall record during the 2023-24 season — the program's first losing season since 2009-10 — after it went 1-1 at the SEC Tournament with an overtime win over Vanderbilt on Wednesday and the loss to the Gamecocks on Thursday.
The Razorbacks trailed by just three at halftime, but they were out-scored by 11 in the final 20 minutes to lose in blowout fashion. South Carolina scored 52 points in the paint, while Arkansas had 66 total points in the game.
"It's an emotional time for our guys right now," assistant coach Todd Lee said on postgame radio. "You're battling, you're getting ready. We talked about it yesterday, we had a really quick turnaround to play a team that had a bye and is a very physical team, very good defensive team. So we didn't have much time physically and really mentally to get ready for the game.
"But I thought our guys did a really good job, especially in the first half and led most of it. Just the start of the second half. When you play a really good team, you can have a two or three minute stretch and that can lose the ballgame. And probably the start of the second half for us lost the ballgame."
South Carolina freshman forward Collin Murray-Boyles scored a game-high 24 points on 11-of-15 shooting. The Gamecocks forced 14 turnovers against the Hogs and turned that into 17 points, plus they turned 12 offensive rebounds into 19 second chance points.
Khalif Battle led Arkansas with 20 points and seven rebounds, and the Hogs did shoot 50.0% from the field. Makhi Mitchell had 15 points and five rebounds, while Jalen Graham added 11 points in his first action since Feb. 14.
Brazile knocked down 3-pointers on each of the Razorbacks' first two possessions, and then two of the next three shots were made baskets from Khalif Battle — who also had a made free throw via an and-1 — to make it an 11-5 lead for the Hogs at the first media timeout.
Murray-Boyles scored nine of the next 11 points for the Gamecocks to cut Arkansas' lead to 15-14 by the 11:32 mark in the first half — which is also when Brazile drew his second foul and hit the bench.
Graham checked in for the first time since Feb. 14 and immediately hit a layup for the Hogs to tie the game at 17-17 after South Carolina just made a 3-pointer to take a brief lead.
The pace of the game went to another level over the next few minutes with both teams trading blows — baskets and hits. Arkansas held a 24-23 lead at the under-8 minute media timeout, when both teams took a much-needed breather.
South Carolina won the next stretch of play thanks in large part to forward B.J. Mack — who visited Arkansas over the offseason — to gain a 30-28 lead with 3:55 left until halftime.
As has seemingly become tradition, the Hogs ended the first half with a bad stretch of basketball. South Carolina held the Hogs scoreless for the final 2:15 of the half and it managed to extend the lead to 38-35 at the break. The Gamecocks were plus-five on the offensive glass and that led to 11 second chance points in the first half to send Arkansas to the locker room looking defeated.
That attitude carried over to the second half, as did a scoring run that was made 14-0 by the Gamecocks to give them a 46-35 lead and force an Eric Musselman timeout at the 17:29 mark in the first half.
From a team that looked like it didn't want to be there to a team that was hungry to get back in the game, the Razorbacks found motivation to make it a single-digit deficit by the under-12 minute media timeout. South Carolina held a 53-47 lead by then, but it was in the midst of a three-minute scoring drought.
That peak turned into a valley for the Razorbacks, as they committed self-inflicted wounds with turnovers and allowed the Gamecocks to grow their lead to 60-49 with 7:38 to play.
Musselman picked up a technical foul with Arkansas down by 13 points just 30 seconds later and that allowed the Gamecocks to pile on. South Carolina seemingly hit three or four "daggers" after that and Musselman had finally seen enough when his team was down 74-54 at the 3:57 mark.
Arkansas made a final push late int he game with a 6-0 run, but that only cut it to a 15-point deficit and the Gamecocks just had to dribble the clock out and hit free throws by then.
Up next, Musselman and his staff will likely turn their attention to building next year's roster immediately. The transfer portal will officially open Monday.
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