BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) Thanks to its defense down the stretch, LSU ran its winning streak to three games with a 64-58 Southeastern Conference victory against South Carolina on Wednesday night.

The Gamecocks jumped to a 56-52 lead with 4:33 to play after a layup and a 3-pointer by Michael Carrera. However, South Carolina scored just two points the rest of the game. The Gamecocks missed six of their final seven field-goal attempts with four of the shots blocked.

"Late in the game, South Carolina really got the tempo to their liking," LSU coach Johnny Jones said. "We are fortunate our guys did not hang their head. They were able to dig a little deeper and make some big plays, especially on the defensive end of the floor, to make sure we got out of here with a victory."