If Tuesday night’s home loss to Georgia wasn’t bad enough, South Carolina received more discouraging news this week.
An MRI revealed that starting wing Myles Stute will miss two to three weeks with a shoulder injury, starting with Saturday’s Southeastern Conference matchup against Arkansas in Fayetteville, Ark.
Stute was injured in the 74-69 loss to the Bulldogs. The Vanderbilt transfer has averaged 9.9 points and 3.9 rebounds a game for the Gamecocks (14-3, 2-2 SEC). He is second on the team in steals with 13 behind leader Meechie Johnson’s 16.
Zach Davis (4.4 points, 3.8 rebounds per game) is expected to make his first start of the season in Stute’s spot.
The timing of the loss is critical as the Gamecocks visit an Arkansas team coming off a key win over Texas A&M.
After an 0-3 start in conference play that included a 32-point whipping by Auburn at home and a 22-point drubbing at Florida, the Razorbacks (10-7, 1-3) showed renewed life against the Aggies. They needed a basket with 1.1 seconds left from leading scorer Tramon Mark for the win but led for all but six seconds of the game.
The Razorbacks got a big lift from guard El Ellis. The transfer from Louisville was back in the starting lineup for the first time in nearly a month and recorded 15 points and six rebounds.
“We need him to play well,” Arkansas coach Eric Musselman said. “He went 3-for-11 but the key was his rebounding. That’s a career high.”
The Gamecocks hope to get a similar bounce-back effort from their No. 2 scorer B.J. Mack (13.6 points per game). Mack scored 16 points against Georgia but is only 25 of 67 (37.3 percent) from the field overall and 5 of 22 (22.3) from behind the arc in his last seven games.
South Carolina coach Lamont Paris doesn’t seem too concerned.
“Everyone is going to go through a stretch where it seems like they shrunk the rim or enlarged the basketball,” Paris said. “Or maybe both.”
–Field Level Media