NASHVILLE — South Carolina is pursuing a different Southeastern Conference prize after missing out on the regular-season title.
Winning the league tournament would work out nicely for the 15th-ranked, fifth-seeded Gamecocks.
Collin Murray-Boyles scored 24 points and South Carolina took the first step Thursday, beating Arkansas 80-66 in the second round of action at Bridgestone Arena.
"We're here to prove we are a championship-contender team," Gamecocks guard Ta'Lon Cooper said.
South Carolina (26-6), took control of a back-and-forth game with a 16-0 run spanning halftime to move into Friday's SEC quarterfinals against 12th-ranked Auburn (24-7), the No. 4 seed.
The Gamecocks gave SEC coach of the year Lamont Paris his first conference tourney win in his second season leading the program, and they tied the 2017 NCAA Final Four team for most wins in program history. The performance by Paris already has earned him a big pay raise and a contract extension.
"This was a no-brainer, at least on my part," Paris said of the new deal.
Paris was hired by South Carolina after he capped his fifth season as head coach at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga with a Southern Conference title and a trip to the NCAA tournament.
B.J. Mack added 19 points and Cooper scored 11 for South Carolina, which won an SEC tournament game for the first time since beating Ole Miss in the opening round in 2018.
Khalif Battle scored 20 points to lead 12th-seeded Arkansas (16-17), which got 15 from Makhi Mitchell and 11 from Jalen Graham.
Arkansas faced a quick turnaround after rallying from a 14-point halftime deficit Wednesday night to beat Vanderbilt 90-85 in overtime. The Razorbacks jumped out to an 11-3 lead before South Carolina got going with Murray-Boyles leading the way.
The Gamecocks scored the final six points of the first half, capped by Johnson's driving layup out of a timeout with 4.3 seconds left, to take a 38-35 lead. Murray-Boyles shot 11-of-15 overall, scored 12 points in each half and finished with seven rebounds and four assists with no turnovers.
"His ceiling is so high. He's got an unbelievably high ceiling," Paris said. "I don't even think he's close to it still."
South Carolina opened the second half by scoring the first 10 points. The Gamecocks pushed their lead to 21 in the final minutes.
Arkansas will miss the NCAA tournament for only the second time since coach Eric Musselman took over in 2019.
"Right now the season ending stings," Musselman said. "I have not been in this position. Hopefully the program is not. Hopefully we're playing deeper in this tournament, but more importantly hopefully we're playing in NCAA tournaments."
Mississippi State 70, LSU 60
Josh Hubbard scored 14 of his 24 points in the second half, when he helped the ninth-seeded Bulldogs (20-12) pull away late to beat No. 8 seed LSU (17-15) and end the four-game losing streak that capped Mississippi State's regular season.
Next up is fifth-ranked, top-seeded Tennessee (24-7), which lost 77-72 at Mississippi State on Jan. 10 during the lone regular-season meeting for the Bulldogs and the Volunteers. Their rematch comes in Friday's first quarterfinal, which is set for 1 p.m. Eastern.
Auburn-South Carolina is the second quarterfinal of the day, set to tip off 25 minutes after the conclusion of the first one.
Hubbard was only 6-of-16 from the field but was 9-of-10 at the foul line against LSU, and Dashawn Davis added 12 points. Tolu Smith grabbed 13 rebounds and D.J. Jeffries had 11, and the Bulldogs outrebounded the Tigers 24-12 in the second half, reversing the first-half totals.
Trae Hannibal scored 18 points and Hunter Dean 10 for LSU, which led 29-22 at halftime.
The Bulldogs rallied by outscoring LSU 12-5 to tie the game on a Smith dunk, then grabbed the lead for good with 12 minutes left on two Hubbard free throws. They had a nine-point advantage after a Shakeel Moore 3-pointer with eight minutes remaining.
Mississippi State shot 51% in the second half, outscoring the Tigers by 17.
The Tigers got within a point with 5:22 to go, but Hubbard hit a pair of 3-pointers and added another basket over the next four minutes, and the Bulldogs went out in front by 10 with a minute left.
AP photo by John Bazemore / Mississippi State guard Dashawn Davis reaches for a loose ball during the Bulldogs' game against LSU in the second round of the SEC tournament Thursday in Nashville.Texas A&M 80, Ole Miss 71
Wade Taylor IV scored 20 points, Tyrece Radford added 18 and nine rebounds, and Andersson Garcia had a double-double to help No. 7 seed Texas A&M beat the 10th-seeded Rebels for the second time in five days.
Garcia finished with 11 points and 14 rebounds, Solomon Washington scored 13 with nine rebounds, and Manny Obaseki added 12 points for the Aggies (19-14), who beat the visiting Rebels 86-60 in the regular-season finale Saturday.
The Aggies, who have won four games in a row, will play ninth-ranked and second-seeded Kentucky (23-8) in Friday's third quarterfinal at 7 p.m. Eastern. Texas A&M beat the visiting Wildcats 97-92 in overtime on Jan. 13, the only regular-season matchup of the teams.
Taylor hit a 3-pointer to ignite a 9-0 run, made two free throws, then capped the spurt with a basket in the lane to make it 29-23 with about four minutes left in the first half, and Texas A&M never again trailed. Matthew Murrell hit a 3-pointer to tie it at 31 with 2:47 remaining, but Obaseki answered with a layup seven seconds later to give the Aggies the lead for good.
Jaemyn Brakefield led Ole Miss (20-11) with 20 points, seven rebounds and five assists. Flanigan scored 17 points, Murrell 14 and Jaylen Murray 10.
Florida 85, Georgia 80
Walter Clayton Jr. scored 15 of his 22 points in the second half, Tyrese Samuel added 17 with a career-high 15 rebounds, and No. 6 seed Florida beat No. 11 seed Georgia in the final matchup of the second round.
The Gators (22-10) advance to face 19th-ranked, third-seeded Alabama (21-10) in Friday's last quarterfinal. Florida and the Crimson Tide each won at home to split the regular-season series, with Alabama slipping by 98-93 in overtime on Feb. 21 before Florida scored its most points in a regulation game in a 105-87 win over the Tide on March 5.
Silas Demary Jr. and Noah Thomasson scored 14 points apiece to lead Georgia (16-15), while Justin Hill and RJ Melendez added 13 points apiece for the Bulldogs, who got past 14th-seeded Missouri, 64-59, in the first round a night earlier.
Against Florida, Demary made a layup and a 3-pointer 27 seconds apart, Russel Tchewa converted a three-point play, and Demary added another layup to cap a 10-2 run and make it 68-all with 5:12 to play. Clayton answered with a 3-pointer just 14 seconds later, though, and Florida led the rest of the way.
Hill scored five consecutive points to cut Georgia's deficit to a point with 2:46 remaining, but Clayton drove to a layup through a foul and converted the free throw to make it 77-73 with 1:57 to go. Riley Kugel was 6-of-6 on free throws in the final 15 seconds to seal the victory.
Thomasson hit a 3 to give the Bulldogs a seven-point lead with 16:29 left in the game. Zion Pullin scored in the lane nine seconds later and Samuel converted a three-point play that gave Florida its first lead of the second half before Kugel capped a 14-3 run with a layup that made it 53-49 with 11 minutes to go.
Thomasson answered with a 3 to cut the deficit to a point, but Alex Condon was fouled as he made a layup, and moments later, Bulldogs coach Mike White was called for a technical foul. Condon hit his free throw before Clayton made both technical foul shots with 10:26 left. Clayton hit a 3 some two minutes later to stretch Florida's lead to 66-58 with eight minutes to go.