Mizzou junior guard Wes Clark returned to the site where he suffered his horrific elbow injury and scored a career high 26 points to lead the Tigers who came up short at South Carolina in an 81-72 final to the 19th ranked Gamecocks.

Leading scorer and rebounder, Kevin Puryear, had two points and one rebound in 12 minutes as he struggled with foul trouble as the Tigers fell behind early 8-0 and could never recover.

Following the game, Kim Anderson pointed to not grabbing key rebounds as the difference in the game.

South Carolina had 17 offensive rebounds to five for the Tigers.

South Carolina honored Sindarius Thornwell before the game for being the 42nd Gamecock to score 1,000 points in his career.  He led USC with 22.

Mizzou returns home Wednesday against Georgia.