South Carolina rides huge first quarter to win in NCAA opener

It wasn't madness, it wasn't magical, but it was enough to open March right, as South Carolina women's basketball defeated North Carolina A&T in its NCAA tournament opener on Friday, 63-52.

The second-seeded Gamecocks (27-6, 12-4 SEC) never trailed against No. 15 seed A&T, thanks to a 19-4 run to start the game powered by free throws from star senior forward A'ja Wilson and perfect 3-for-3 3-point shooting from freshman Bianca Jackson.

Beyond that, however, USC never turned the game into the blowout it looked like it might become early on, as the Aggies actually outscored it 41-37 over the final three quarters.

Afterward, USC coach Dawn Staley was blunt in her assessment of the contest.

"This is uncharacteristic of a South Carolina women's basketball team performance, and it was very, very disappointing," Staley said. "I don't want to take anything away from North Carolina A&T. They played extremely well. We have better basketball in us and surely we're going to have to play it if we want to get out of the second round."

Staley wasn't the only to offer a harsh critique of the Gamecocks' performance Friday. Wilson said she felt that she had let Staley down and blasted her team's effort.

"We still got lax in situations where we shouldn't have. We got really comfortable, and that's not good. They really beat us for three quarters and that's unacceptable for us,

NC A&T's zone defense took its toll on the Gamecocks, who shot just 38 percent on the game and committed 19 turnovers, continuing a troubling trend that bothered Staley's squad throughout the SEC tournament in Nashville.

I just felt like they were speeding us up ... and playing underneath us," Wilson said of how A&T succeeded in frustrating USC so much. "And that's something that we really need to be prepared for going into the tournament, because teams are going to be watching that, teams are going to be seeing that and thinking they can speed us up and turn it over."

But the Aggies were unable to take advantage of those mistakes throughout the second and third quarters, shooting 33 percent from the field and scoring just 22 points off turnovers. If the final 10 minutes, however, they staged a late rally, connecting on four consecutive 3-pointers and closing within seven points with 3:22 to play, giving many of the 11,085 fans at Colonial Life Arena late anxiety.

"After watching them (on film), you get the notion of, this team is pretty disciplined," Staley said. "This team could give us a little bit of trouble if we don't stop penetration, if we don't rebound the basketball, if we don't take care of the basketball, and those three areas down the stretch really hurt us. I thought they had a hunger to win a lot more than us. I thought we just cruised after we played a good first quarter."

It was only with some late heroics from Wilson, who had 19 points and 16 rebounds on the night for her 22nd double-double of the season, and junior guard Doniyah Cliney, who had six of her eight points in the fourth quarter, that USC was able to hold the upstart Aggies at bay and continue to keep 2 seeds perfect in NCAA play.

"I just feel like fourth quarter is where we really know that we have to turn it up. We really have to change our ways and do us, and I think you kinda saw glimpses of it throughout the fourth quarter," Wilson said. "Doniyah had great back-to-back baskets and she really helped us in that way. It's kinda sad that we had to wait all the way until the fourth quarter, but at the same time, I think that's what we've seen in the national championship game, that's what we've seen in past games."

Jackson was South Carolina's second-leading scorer with 16 points, but she shot just 3-for-9 after the first quarter. Redshirt junior forward Alexis Jennings contributed 10 rebounds and seven points, all from the free throw line.

These guys, they've played in a lot of big games and a lot of close games, so they were telling us what we needed do and had the will to win. So they were there for us tonight," Jackson said of USC's veterans.

At the end of the day, South Carolina advanced to the round of 32, where it will face Staley's alma mater, No. 10 seed Virginia on Sunday at 9 p.m. And that's something Staley is holding onto.

"You don't have to play perfect basketball, and we were far from that, but we get the chance to play again. That's the most exciting thing about it. We get the chance to prep, the chance to figure out some schemes to advance out of the second round," she said.

This story was originally published March 16, 2018 at 9:31 PM with the headline "South Carolina rides huge first quarter to win in NCAA opener."