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Arkansas coming off their first SEC win of the season against Missouri now get the task of hosting South Carolina on Sunday. South Carolina, ranked No.1 in the country, is 16-1 on the season. Ironically that lone loss was to Missouri 70-69 on the road despite Missouri playing with only eight players. Even after the loss South Carolina maintained their ranking and Coach Neighbors talked about that in the press conference stating that Arkansas will have to be great in all facets of the game to pull of the upset on Sunday.
One of the bright spots for Arkansas has been the emergence of Rylee Langerman, the sophmore from Norman, Oklahoma. Rylee scored 17 points off the bench in the win over Missouri including 5-6 from three point land. Standing at 5-9 you wouldn’t know that watching her play on the court. One of Arkansas’ fiercest defenders averaging 3.4 rebounds per game, Langerman is all over the court chasing down loose balls and causing havoc on the opponents.
The Gamecocks are coming off a 20 point victory over Texas A&M 65-45 on Thursday and are hoping to avoid losing their 2nd straight road game this season. Led by All American Aliyah Boston who is averaging 17 points, 11 rebounds, and 3 blocks per game, has really asserted herself as one of the top players in the country. Alongside Boston is Zia Cooke and Destan Henderson averaging 12 and 11 points per game respectively .
Other than the lapse in Missouri, Carolina has beaten 8 ranked teams already this season including a 73-57 win over UCONN and a 65-61 win over Stanford in which South Carolina overcame a 18 point deficit to seal the win. South Carolina and Coach Dawn Staley are trying to prove they are one of the greatest programs in women’s college basketball and trying to take the torch from the man in Storrs as the new big dog on the block. Although it would take 20 years of dominance and 10 more National Championships, South Carolina has cemented itself atop the college basketball world for many years to come.
As for the game tomorrow in Bud Walton Arena it’s going to take Arkansas best efforts and the whole team bringing their A game, but as we have seen this magic before last season when Arkansas knocked off UCONN. Coach Neighbors has asked for the fans to show up as they have proven time and time again what energy 5-6 thousands fans can bring to this team. Last night we saw a record setting crowd for the gymnastics team (10,345) and I am sure that can be duplicated tomorrow in the Palace of Mid America.