Welch's 16 lead No. 6 South Carolina to 67-49 win

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - Aleighsa Welch scored 16 points and had a career-best five blocks to lead No. 6 South Carolina to its sixth straight victory with a 67-49 win over Arkansas on Sunday.

The Gamecocks (22-2, 10-1) maintained their hold on first place in the Southeastern Conference.

Arkansas (16-8, 3-8) did its best to pack in the middle and disrupt South Carolina's game plan of feeding the 6-foot Welch and 6-4 forwards Elem Ibiam and Alaina Coates underneath. But Ibiam and Coates both added 10 points each while the trio of low-post players combined for 21 rebounds.

South Carolina also turned up its defense against the Razorbacks, holding them to under 30 percent shooting for a second time this season. Arkansas leading scorer Jessica Jackson was held to half her 16.6 point-a-game average with eight points on 1-of-12 shooting.

Tiffany Mitchell added 15 points for South Carolina.

Calli Berna and Keira Peak led the Razorbacks with nine points each.

The Gamecocks were ahead by double digits midway through the opening period and led 33-18 at the break. Arkansas cut that down to 37-27 on Calli Berna's 3-pointer with 15:26 left. South Carolina steadily built that back to 53-34 on Coates' three-point play with 8:48 remaining.

South Carolina has steadily risen in the SEC this season because of its power in the paint. Ibiam leads the conference in blocks _ she set the school's single-season mark in last Thursday night's win at Mississippi State _ while Coates is third in league blocks.

And it was clear from the start, the Razorbacks wanted to pack things in down low and prevent the quick lay-ins and close in buckets that have the Gamecocks on top in SEC field-goal percentage.

Arkansas' plan worked for a while. It forced South Carolina into 10 first-half turnovers _ the Gamecocks had 14, 11 and 11 in each of their past three games _ and made the team look for other ways to score.

Mitchell, the Gamecocks' top scorer, took full advantage with a 3-pointer and a three-point play early on as they moved on top 15-6. Eventually, things opened up for South Carolina's post players.

Ibiam made four of six shots for eight points and had two of the Gamecocks' six first-half blocks. Welch, the SEC's leader in field goal percentage, was 3-of-5 shooting for seven points and three blocks.

While the Gamecocks may have had trouble scoring, so did Arkansas _ again.

The Razorbacks finished the half with just six field goals, four by Peak, and their second-lowest points output in a half. The fewest came on Jan. 2 when the Gamecocks held Arkansas to 16 points in the opening half of a 55-51 victory in Fayetteville.

For the first 17 minutes of the half, Arkansas was 4 of 26 on field goals. Peak made them all with the rest of her team 0 of 19.

Standout freshman forward Jessica Jackson was 1 of 8 from the field. The Razorbacks made 6-of-30 shots (20 percent) and trailed 33-18 at the break.

The game was part of "Play4Kay" series to raise breast cancer awareness. Both teams wore pink sneakers, the officials used pink whistles and coaching staffs wore "Play4Kay" shirts or sported pink ribbons.

During warmups, South Carolina's shirts also had "Nikki" in honor of assistant Nikki McCray who was diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this season

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