Arkansas women’s basketball dropped its fourth straight game Thursday night, falling 93-58 to No. 3 South Carolina inside Bud Walton Arena.
The Razorbacks (11-7, 0-3 SEC) were led by sophomore Jada Bates, who scored a career-high 16 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the field. South Carolina (16-1, 3-0 SEC) used a fast start and sustained pressure to pull away early and never looked back.
After Arkansas opened the scoring with a 3-pointer from Jenna Lawrence, the Gamecocks answered with a 14-2 run to seize control of the first quarter. South Carolina led 29-12 at the end of the period, capping it with a buzzer-beating layup from Maddy McDaniel.
Arkansas briefly found momentum in the second quarter, putting together an 8-0 run to cut the deficit to 10. The Gamecocks responded quickly, pushing the lead back to 17 before halftime. The Razorbacks struggled offensively late in the half, going 1-of-9 from the field, but still held a 21-16 rebounding edge at the break.
South Carolina opened the third quarter with back-to-back layups and widened the gap to 66-41 by the media timeout. The Gamecocks outscored Arkansas 28-14 in the period to put the game out of reach.
Bates surpassed her previous career high with her second 3-pointer of the night in the fourth quarter, but South Carolina continued to control the tempo and closed out the game with a dominant final stretch.
Arkansas will look to bounce back on the road Sunday when it travels to face No. 20 Tennessee. Tipoff in Knoxville is set for Jan. 11.
WebReadyTM Powered by WireReady® NSI