AUBURN, Ala. _ Devan Cambridge began his takeoff a step inside the 3-point line. Within an instant, he was on the rim _ and South Carolina's win streak felt over.
The Gamecocks came to Auburn Arena on Wednesday seeking to build on impressive performances from the week before. Instead, South Carolina was a losing bystander to a Tiger's coming-out party.
Cambridge, a freshman not terribly high on the Carolina scouting report, had a career night en route to Auburn's 80-67 win.
Cambridge, who entered averaging just over three points a game, finished with 26, including a monster put-back slam in the second half that all but put a dagger in Frank Martin's bunch.
South Carolina dropped to 10-8 and 2-3 in the SEC while the 16th-ranked Tigers improved to 16-2 (4-2 SEC).
Auburn outscored Carolina, 32-20, over the final 14:44 to end its two-game losing streak and put a halt to the Gamecocks' recent winning ways.
The Gamecocks showed signs of their victory formulas from last week _ see Jermaine Cousinard taking over for spurts at a time and pouring in 16 points _ but their defense struggled for stops. The Tigers' 80 are the second-most against Carolina this season.
Cambridge was a big reason why.
The 6-foot-6 guard from Nashville, Tenn., nearly hit as many 3s Wednesday (six) than his season total (seven) entering the game. When the game tightened to 50-47 with 14:17, it was Cambridge who quickly extended the advantage to six.
Auburn fittingly closed the first half on an 8-2 run to take a 39-31 lead at intermission. The opening 20 minutes was full of these swings.
The Tigers entered Wednesday as one of the SEC's worst shooting teams since conference play began. They looked the part early as South Carolina jumped out to a 13-6 advantage. Auburn was 1 for its first 10 and 4 for its first 16 from the field. But when the Gamecocks, plagued by turnovers, couldn't create a large enough cushion, Auburn caught fire.
The Tigers made four of their five first half 3s in a two-minute span, including a banked-in shot from Cambridge. It was all part of a 21-5 run that put AU up 29-20 with 4:24 left, cueing a South Carolina mini-rally _ authored by Couisnard _ that had the game tied at the 2:33 mark.
