S. Carolina hands loss to Tigers

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Sindarius Thornwell scored 14 points and Laimonas Chatkevicius added 13 points and eight rebounds to lead South Carolina to a 65-60 win over Missouri Tuesday night in a game between the Southeastern Conference's bottom two teams.

The Gamecocks (12-11, 3-8 SEC) led by 10 in both the first and second halves, but couldn't put the Tigers (7-17, 1-10) away until late.

Missouri had cut South Carolina's lead to 54-51 with less than three minutes to go when Thornwell hit his second 3-pointer of the game.

The Gamecocks would stretch the lead to 10 again before the Tigers hit a couple of late 3-pointers.

Missouri's bad season took a turn for the worse. The Tigers had only nine players in uniform and lost sophomore guard Wes Clark to a gruesome arm injury in the second half.

The Tigers have lost 10 in a row, fell two games into last place in the SEC and are assured a losing conference record for only the third time in the past 18 seasons. It's the longest losing streak for the Tigers in nearly 50 years.

South Carolina appeared to be set to run away early. The Gamecocks led 12-2 seven minutes into the game. But Missouri stuck with its zone, and the Gamecocks appeared to settle for long shots. South Carolina finished the game shooting 7 of 25 on 3-pointers.

Missouri took the lead just once in the second half on a dunk by Deuce Bello that put the Tigers up 34-32 with 17 minutes left. But the Gamecocks went on a 20-8 run. It was a solid second half for a team that gave up 18 straight second half points in a loss to Vanderbilt in their last game.

Keith Shamburger led Missouri with 13 points. Clark scored 11 points before his injury with 13:18 left in the game. Johnathan Williams III also added 11 point for Missouri.

TIP-INS

Missouri: Freshmen Montaque Gill-Caesar and Namon Wright did not travel with the team to Tuesday's game. Both were suspended for violating team policy before Saturday's loss to Texas A&M. ... Missouri shot 42.3 percent Tuesday. The last time at South Carolina the Tigers shot 69.6 in a 90-68 win in March 2013.

South Carolina: The Gamecocks have not shot better than 50 percent in an SEC game this season. South Carolina was 26-of-52 in a loss to Auburn. ... Tuesday's win over Missouri was South Carolina's first in four games against the Tigers.

UP NEXT

Missouri hosts Mississippi State on Saturday.

South Carolina travels to No. 1 Kentucky on Saturday.