With the Arkansas Razorbacks struggling to get consistent scoring in its half-court offense at South Carolina on Saturday, Jalen Graham came to the rescue.
The 6-9 senior transfer scored a team-high 16 points on 8-of-10 shooting to help the University of Arkansas hold off the Gamecocks 65-63 for its first road win of the season.
Coach Eric Musselman substituted Graham in for the first time with Arkansas leading 7-6 and he came out about five minutes later having scored six points as the Razorbacks opened up a 21-12 advantage.
"I just know when I get in the game, Coach Muss, he wants me to contribute on [offense]," Graham said on the Razorback Sports Network. "Sometimes when we get stretches where we get scoring droughts, I feel I can come in and help, and that's what I did today."
In the first half, Graham hit 6 of 7 shots to account for 40% of Arkansas' field goals. As usual, Graham's post moves were on display as he sank baby hooks, short bank shots, a one-handed runner and even a long-extension scoop under the arm of a defender and off the backboard.
"I ain't going to lie. I'm always going to try to score, try to attack," Graham said. "That's my mentality. If I feel like I can take somebody one on one, that's what I'm going to do."
Graham led the Razorbacks in scoring for the third time this season, following a 16-point outing against North Carolina-Asheville and a 16-point game against Alabama, when he tied with Davonte Davis.
"Like I said all year, Jalen, that can be any day," guard Ricky Council said. "He's one of the most skilled bigs I've ever played with."
Musselman called Graham "a really special offensive player" who provided a scoring spark.
"We just need Jalen to take a little bit better care of the ball," he said on the Razorback Sports Network. "I mean three turnovers when he doesn't have the ball in his hands that much.
"We need his offense, but he's got to defensive rebound. I mean one defensive rebound in 21 minutes when we're struggling to get defensive boards. We really, really need some physicality and rebounding in traffic like our guards are doing."
Gray matter
South Carolina's 7-0 center Josh Gray, a transfer from LSU, has not been a big scorer this season or really in his career.
Yet the Brooklyn native had the game of his life against the Hogs, racking up a career-high 20 points on 9-of-14 shooting with 14 rebounds. Gray also took the final shot after South Carolina threw a full-length inbound pass with 2.3 seconds remaining, but his three-point try was well off the mark at the final horn.
Gray did all of his damage on the blocks with four layups and five dunks, several of them on pick and rolls and when his man helped off in the paint.
"Coach wanted me to demand the ball more," Gray said of Coach Lamont Paris. "And be more tenacious on the boards like I have been lately. I guess I made that a focal point tonight. They were definitely smaller than we were down there. The sets we were running had the bigs help up, and I had the easy dunks."
Gray, who entered averaging 3.4 points per game, had only been in double figures in one other game, an 11-point outing at Florida on Jan. 25.
'Devo' buckets
Arkansas guard Davonte "Devo" Davis continued a scoring roll with 15 points for his eighth consecutive game with that many or more points.
Davis converted 4 of 10 shots from three-point range, giving him back-to-back games with a career high in three pointers made.
The Jacksonville High School product is 18 of 39 (46.2%) on three-pointers in the past six games, bumping his three-point accuracy from 20% to 32.1% in that span.
The rest of the Razorbacks went 0 of 5 from three-point range.
"His three-point shooting is really what has become extremely valuable to us, and he's doing a great job of not shooting the threes off the bounce," Coach Eric Musselman said. "For the most part he's shooting them with his feet set. So really happy with the confidence level that he has shown."
Sad 'Life'
The Gamecocks dropped to 0-6 this season in SEC home games at Colonial Life Arena, which is in its 20th year as their home facility.
However, South Carolina clearly made progress. After losing their first five SEC home games by an average of 25.2 points per game, the Gamecocks played Arkansas within two. Tennessee beat the Gamecocks by 43 points (85-42) and Texas A&M hammered them by 41 (95-53) in their first two conference home games under Coach Lamont Paris.
"It's coming," Paris said. "I don't know when. I was extremely hopeful today would be the day. It wasn't.
"You see a lot of progress. For the guys, they don't get the instantaneous satisfaction of winning the game to drive the point home. We did a lot of good things."
Walsh's work
South Carolina beat Arkansas 13-10 in offensive rebounds and made that into a 12-10 advantage in second-chance points, but the margin would've been a lot bigger without Jordan Walsh's contributions.
The 6-7 freshman grabbed six offensive rebounds en route to a team-high 10 boards. Walsh posted his second game with double-figure rebounds following a game with 10 boards and 6 points at Auburn on Jan. 7.
"Some of those late, last three or four minute offensive boards were crucial for us," Coach Eric Musselman said of Walsh on the Razorback Sports Network.
Zone flushes
The Razorbacks had turnovers against the South Carolina zone defense in the early going, but they also got all the way to the rim a couple of times to take leads.
Ricky Council made a dribble drive on the right wing near the free throw line when he fed low to Anthony Black, who spotted Jordan Walsh coming down the middle for a two-hand flush and a 7-6 lead at the 14:21 mark.
A few minutes later, after a Hog turnover, Council got in the middle of the lane and fed Jalen Graham for a lob dunk and 9-8 advantage.
Free free throw
Anthony Black got a second chance at a three-point play when the Gamecocks' Jacobi Wright stepped into the lane just before he missed a free throws.
Black capitalized on the second chance to complete an and-one with 11:26 left in the first half for a 12-10 lead.
The series
Arkansas evened its record against South Carolina on the road at 8-8 with the win at Colonial Life Arena. The Razorbacks also improved to 23-15 against the Gamecocks, with all the games being played since the teams joined the SEC concurrently for the 1991-92 season.
Tip ins
• Arkansas improved to 14-1 in games played in February since the 2020-21 season.
• According to ESPN, Arkansas is 60-3 under Eric Musselman when holding an opponent to less than 70 points.
• The Arkansas bench outscored its counterparts 20-4.
Gallery: Arkansas defeats South Carolina, 65-63
