Arkansas has been one of the more successful teams in the Southeastern Conference recently.

The No. 21 Razorbacks (17-6, 7-3 SEC) have won four of their last five games and are just one game behind conference-leading Florida going into their contest against LSU on Tuesday night in Baton Rouge, La.

Their most recent loss came against Kentucky on Jan. 31, but they bounced back with an 88-68 road victory against Mississippi State on Saturday. The victory came without two injured players, guards D.J. Wagner and Karter Knox, both of whom have started 18 games.

“We know we’re a deep team,” Arkansas forward Nick Pringle said, “so when we’ve got a guy out, next man up.”

Razorbacks freshman Isaiah Sealy played 15 minutes, the most he has played in an SEC game, and had six points, three blocks, two assists and one rebound against the Bulldogs.

“He was ready,” Pringle said. “He’d been locked in all week.”

Sophomore Billy Richmond III made his first start in three weeks and tied his SEC career high with 14 points.

Head coach John Calipari, who used just seven players against Mississippi State, said Wagner and Knox were questionable against LSU.

Even though Calipari was operating with a shortened bench, he still got a team effort. Darius Acuff Jr. had 24 points and eight assists, Trevon Brazile added 19 points and eight rebounds, Meleek Thomas scored 17 and Pringle grabbed a season-high 11 boards.

Arkansas, which defeated visiting LSU 85-81 on Jan. 24, missed its first five shots against Mississippi State.

“We’ve got to get better at (starting),” Calipari said.

LSU started just fine in its most recent game, but quickly saw things turn. The Tigers (14-9, 2-8) rolled to a 31-16 lead against visiting Georgia as they sought consecutive SEC wins for the first time this season.

But Georgia scored the last 11 points of the first half, took a 42-37 halftime lead and led by as many as 17 points in the second half as LSU absorbed an 83-71 defeat.

“I thought there were two things in the difference to the game,” LSU head coach Matt McMahon said. “After a nine (assists) to two (turnovers) ratio, we were three to 12 the rest of the game. Then, after only giving up four offensive rebounds in the first half, we give up 12 in the second.”

Inconsistency within games has plagued the Tigers all season. It doesn’t help that starting point guard Dedan Thomas Jr., who leads the team in scoring (15.3) and assists (6.5), has missed the last two games, and seven of 10 SEC contests, because of a lower-leg injury. His status for Tuesday is uncertain.

Thomas had 18 points, five assists and three rebounds in the Jan. 24 loss to the Razorbacks, which was his first SEC start.

“We can’t separate,” said LSU forward Marquel Sutton, who had 14 points as one of just two double-figure scorers against Georgia. “We’ve got to stay together as a group, as a team, just like we’ve been doing all season.”

–Field Level Media

After seeing a 10-game winning streak snapped Saturday in a last-second loss to its rival, No. 4 Duke will aim to bounce back on Tuesday night when it travels to Pittsburgh.

Duke’s road loss to North Carolina, on a last-second shot by the Tar Heels, was just the second of the season for the Blue Devils (21-2, 10-1 Atlantic Coast Conference). Duke was outscored by 15 points in the second half and 9-0 over the final 2:25.

A point of contention after the game between the two rivals was the discrepancy in fouls.

North Carolina was whistled for just seven, the lowest for a Duke opponent this season. The Tar Heels also were called for just one foul in the second half. North Carolina is averaging the fewest fouls per game (14.5) in the ACC.

Duke was called for 15 fouls, with starting forward Patrick Ngongba II fouling out in just 16 minutes. Instead of complaining about the officiating, Duke head coach Jon Scheyer used the foul numbers to challenge his players to work harder.

“For me, I don’t know if I’ve been a part of a game where there’s one foul in a half. I thought we were attacking the paint. Clearly, our guys have to play stronger and play better through contact,” Scheyer said. “Let me be very clear, that is not the reason (Duke lost). It’s hard to win, though, if you’re not drawing fouls at all and we’re fouling out. Again, not at all why we lost, but that’s something we have to do a better job with.”

Duke again was led by freshman Cameron Boozer, who finished with 24 points and 11 rebounds for his 12th double-double of the season and seventh with at least 20 points. Boozer leads the ACC in scoring (23.3 points per game) and rebounding (10.0) this season.

“Get Cam downhill. You just know he’s going to make the right play,” Scheyer said. “Sometimes it goes in, sometimes it doesn’t. I’m taking what we got every day of the week, twice on Sunday.”

Recent meetings between Duke and Pitt (9-15, 2-9) have been family reunions of sorts. Pitt coach Jeff Capel was an All-ACC guard for the Blue Devils in the mid-1990s and spent seven seasons on Duke’s bench as an assistant to longtime coach Mike Krzyzewski.

Scheyer and Capel were on the Blue Devils’ staff together for four seasons.

This season, Capel’s eighth at the helm of the Panthers, has been a struggle. Pitt has its second-worst single-season winning percentage of his tenure at .375. The Panthers have lost nine of their last 11 games, most recently falling at home 86-67 to SMU on Saturday.

Pitt ranks 302nd in scoring with 70.8 points per game.

“For a team that’s struggling like we are, a lot of times guys get energy when they see the ball through the basket,” Capel said. “If it’s not going through the basket, it can drain the energy and suck the energy from them … and then that affects everything. That’s where we have to grow. That’s where our immaturity and inexperience really has to grow.”

Pitt leading scorer Brandin Cummings (12.5 points) has missed the past two games with an ankle injury. Cameron Corhen, who scored 15 points against SMU, delivers 12.3 points per game with a team-best 7.4 rebounds.

–Field Level Media

MILAN, Italy — Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea said they were thrilled to defy expectations and deliver a clean, season-best pairs performance at the Winter Olympics on Sunday, a result that proved pivotal as the United States edged Japan to win a second straight gold in the team event.

Kam and O’Shea scored 135.36 points to earn seven points for Team USA in the pairs segment, and their fourth-place finish preserved a slim cushion over Japan in a nerve-jangling final day of competition.

Because of their performance, the United States carried a two-point lead into the women’s free skate, where Amber Glenn struggled and placed third, leaving the U.S. tied with Japan entering the men’s free skate finale.

“Quad God” Ilia Malinin then delivered to secure the decisive point and clinch the title for the Americans.

“Honestly, we were just ready to come out and perform,” O’Shea told Reuters on Monday.

“We walked into the rink with a great attitude. We were ready to go and felt like it was going to go well from the moment we stepped in,” he said.

While Malinin is the overwhelming favorite for the men’s gold, and Glenn and Alysa Liu are contenders on the women’s side, Kam and O’Shea are carrying somewhat lower expectations going into the pairs event in Milan.

“We’re grateful to have gone out there and performed well for our team and gotten an extra point that might not have been expected of us,” he added.

“Then we saw everybody doing their best, and Ilia brought it home. It was awesome.”

The performance was also redemption for the 21-year-old Kam and 34-year-old O’Shea, who had a fall during their short program in the team competition two days earlier.

Kam, who was seen shedding tears of joy on the podium during the U.S. national anthem, said the moment reflected years of effort to deliver under pressure on the sport’s biggest stage.

“I feel like Danny and I have worked so hard to get to this moment and show what we are capable of,” she said.

“We’ve been kind of clawing our way there and to be able to put out a performance that we’re proud of on one of the biggest stages means so much.”

“And hearing the anthem feels so solid,” Kam added.

“It’s like, we did that, that is playing for us. We represented our country well and made everybody proud.”

–Reuters, special to Field Level Media