By Robbie Neiswanger
Arkansas News Bureau • rneiswanger@arkansasnews.com
FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas forward Marshawn Powell set the tone for the week Monday, when he responded to a question about last Saturday’s Alabama loss by saying he was ready to go to work. And he hoped his teammates were, too.
Two days later, the freshman’s determination paid off on the court against South Carolina when he led the Razorbacks to a much-needed home win.
Arkansas bounced back from the Alabama disappointment to roll to a 92-79 victory against the Gamecocks in front of an announced crowd of 13,175 in Bud Walton Arena.
Powell scored a team-high 26 points, taking advantage of Arkansas’ gameplan to pound the ball into the post against the smaller Gamecocks. In fact, some of his teammates predicted the big performance during the week, telling Powell he was due for a 20-point night.
“I tried as hard as I could,” Powell said. “Shots were falling. They just couldn’t do anything with me inside.”
With it, Arkansas (14-12, 7-4 in Southeastern Conference) held onto its place atop the SEC Western Division standings. The Razorbacks, who haven’t won a division title since 1995, lead Mississippi State (6-5) and Ole Miss (5-5) with five games remaining.
Arkansas stayed on top of the division by getting the 6-foot-7 Powell involved early and often against the Gamecocks (14-11, 5-6), who opened the game with 6-foot-5 freshman Lakeem Jackson guarding him in the low post.
Powell lowered his shoulder and scored six of the Razorbacks’ eight points to help them grab the lead.
“He got off to a good start. They started small,” Arkansas coach John Pelphrey said. “We were able to get some very good opportunities early. He was impressive.”
South Carolina recovered from the start and stepped ahead by knocking down long-range shots, but Powell helped the Razorbacks answer with a late run in the first half. After the game was tied at 27-27, the Razorbacks outscored South Carolina 13-6 the rest of the half to take a 40-33 edge into the locker room. Powell scored the first six points in the half-ending spurt.
“It was the buzz of the day,” Arkansas point guard Courtney Fortson said of Powell. “Watching film, looking at the matchups, you know he has a lot of offensive ability and he’s hard to stop one-on-one.”
Arkansas needed his efforts with senior forward Michael Washington struggling with foul trouble Wednesday.
Washington did become the 33rd Arkansas player to reach the 1,000-point mark in his career, but played only 13 minutes. He finished with eight points and zero rebounds before fouling out late in the game.
But Washington’s struggles didn’t matter Wednesday.
The Razorbacks quickly took control of the game in the second half behind Powell and Fortson, who was close to a triple-double with 19 points, 9 rebounds and 8 assists. The duo teamed up for a pair of breath-taking dunks during a 17-1 run that helped the Razorbacks push their lead to 60-39 with 14:27 remaining in the game.
“The start of the second half they got easy basket after easy basket and built the lead,” South Carolina coach Darrin Horn said. “Ultimately it was too much for us.”
Said Fortson: “That’s what we love to do.”
South Carolina wouldn’t go away.
Led by the trio of Devan Downey, Sam Muldrow and Brandis Raley-Ross, the Gamecocks kept pressing and clawing with the Razorbacks throughout the second half.
Downey scored 20 of his game-high 28 points in the second half and helped South Carolina pull to within 11 points on three occasions. Downey, Muldrow and Raley-Ross combined to score 67 of South Carolina’s 79 points.
But Arkansas did enough on both ends to hold on.
The Razorbacks, who had four players score in double figures, finished shooting 54.5 percent from the field and got 48 points in the paint Wednesday. Pelphrey also was impressed with his team’s defensive performance against Downey, who is the SEC’s leading scorer.
“I thought we did a really good job on him,” he said. “We held him to a mere 28. It shows how good he is.”
Arkansas also went 27-for-36 from the free-throw line, getting 24 more attempts than the Gamecocks (6 of 12). Fortson went 10-for-12, while Powell was 6-for-7.
It capped one of the best performances of Powell’s career. And helped him and the rest of the Razorbacks forget about the road loss at Alabama last Saturday.
“I feel like I delivered. I feel like I did what I was supposed to be doing for a long time,” Powell said. “I’ve been scoring consistently throughout the whole season, but I feel like I’m ready now. I ain’t playing no more with nobody. I’m going to go hard, 100 percent.”
