No. 2 South Carolina visits No. 16 Oklahoma following Verhulst’s 21-point outing

South Carolina Gamecocks (19-1, 5-1 SEC) at Oklahoma Sooners (14-4, 2-3 SEC)

Norman, Oklahoma; Thursday, 7:30 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: No. 16 Oklahoma hosts No. 2 South Carolina after Payton Verhulst scored 21 points in Oklahoma’s 91-72 loss to the LSU Tigers.

The Sooners have gone 9-2 in home games. Oklahoma is 13-2 in games decided by at least 10 points.

The Gamecocks are 5-1 in SEC play. South Carolina has a 2-1 record in one-possession games.

Oklahoma averages 89.8 points, 35.9 more per game than the 53.9 South Carolina allows. South Carolina has shot at a 51.5% clip from the field this season, 19.8 percentage points greater than the 31.7% shooting opponents of Oklahoma have averaged.

The matchup Thursday is the first meeting this season between the two teams in conference play.

TOP PERFORMERS: Aaliyah Chavez is scoring 18.8 points per game with 4.0 rebounds and 4.1 assists for the Sooners. Raegan Beers is averaging 16.5 points and 11.9 rebounds while shooting 55.6% over the last 10 games.

Tessa Johnson is shooting 46.5% from beyond the arc with 2.5 made 3-pointers per game for the Gamecocks, while averaging 13.4 points. Joyce Edwards is averaging 21.8 points, 6.4 rebounds and 2.4 steals over the past 10 games.

LAST 10 GAMES: Sooners: 7-3, averaging 87.9 points, 45.7 rebounds, 21.4 assists, 11.2 steals and 6.0 blocks per game while shooting 45.1% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 63.2 points per game.

Gamecocks: 10-0, averaging 87.2 points, 39.9 rebounds, 17.1 assists, 11.7 steals and 5.8 blocks per game while shooting 50.1% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 53.1 points.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.