Free throws — lots of them — fuel South Carolina to crucial win over Georgia

If there was one thing South Carolina women’s basketball had enough of Thursday night at Georgia, it was free throws.

Frequent trips to the charity stripe paid off for USC (21-5, 10-3 SEC), who got more than a third of their offensive production from there to top Georgia (21-5, 9-4 SEC) 77-65 and take sole possession of second place in the SEC.

“It was knock out, drag out, which is what you would expect of an SEC game,” South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said. “We knew exactly what they were going to do, whether of not we’d be able to stop them. I’m just really proud of our players for just playing for 40 minutes. There were no lapses. They just seemed like they got stronger and stronger as the game went on.”

All told, the No. 8 Gamecocks attempted 35 free throws and made 27, both season highs. By contrast, the No. 20 Lady Bulldogs took just 9. Georgia was called for 27 total fouls, the most by a South Carolina SEC opponent this year.

“Fouling too much has been a problem with us all year,” Georgia forward Mackenzie Engram said. “I don’t think we made that adjustment to realizing that (the referees) are calling those touch fouls and we need to ... don’t put ourselves in those situations to make them call it.”

By contrast, Staley said, she didn’t expect her team to get that many free throws, but once the Gamecocks saw how the game was being called, they did change their play.

“It was a very physical game. A very, very physical game,” Staley said. “I thought we made adjustments to how the game was called, and also how the game was being played.”

The contest started at a sprint, with both teams scoring more than 20 points each in the first quarter, in contrast to the typically strong defense that has defined the rivalry as of late. The final score made for the most combined points between the teams since 2003.

While South Carolina spent a large amount of time at the line, Georgia utilized strong ball movement to exploit cracks in USC’s zone, especially in the paint, where the Lady Bulldogs outscored the Gamecocks 38-32 despite losing the rebounding battle 47-32.

By halftime, the Gamecocks had attempted 13 free throws, which played a huge role in keeping the game close as USC went more than six minutes without a field goal at one point. In the second half, the whistles only increased, eventually reaching a tipping point when Georgia coach Joni Taylor was called for a technical after vigorously arguing a call. South Carolina was 18-of-22 from the line in the final 20 minutes.

“You get there enough, you’ll make enough. I think the second half was really key for us,” Staley said. “We got there a lot and really familiarized ourselves with being at the free throw line and knocked some key ones down.”

The lion’s share of those free throws went to sophomore guard Tyasha Harris and the frontcourt duo of A’ja Wilson and Alexis Jennings. The trio combined to score 57 points, and Wilson added 16 rebounds for her 18th double double of the year.

“I think this is the type of game Alexis thrives on. The more physical, the more contact, the better for her. And that’s why I thought she had a really good game for us. And once she was working in the paint ... I thought Ty was really crafty in picking and choosing her spots and getting to the basket to knock down some shots,” Staley said.

Freshman Bianca Jackson added 13 points to bring the Gamecocks to four players in double figures. She led the team with 3 3-pointers, including two in the fourth quarter that essentially put the game away. With graduate transfer Lindsey Spann now out for the season with a knee injury, Jackson is quickly becoming USC’s go-to 3-point threat.

“I’ve been working on shot, so I’m just getting more confident,” Jackson said.

Now, with three games remaining in the regular season, South Carolina appears almost certain to claim a top-four spot and double bye in the SEC tournament, and while Staley emphasized the need for the Gamecocks to finish out strong against teams just behind them like LSU and Tennessee, she also acknowledged the impact of Thursday’s victory.

“This is a huge win. This is a huge win,” Staley said. “This game could have gone either way on paper and I think we match up with each other pretty well. I thought they probably had the edge because they were at home ... but I think this was probably out of all the years I’ve been coaching in this league, this was probably one of our better performances in this gym.”

South Carolina returns home to face Kentucky on Sunday at 3 p.m. The game will be broadcast on SEC Network Plus.

This story was originally published February 15, 2018 at 9:00 PM with the headline "Free throws — lots of them — fuel South Carolina to crucial win over Georgia."