USC hoping to take advantage of home court against Connecticut

As a retired South Carolina faculty member, Gere Fulton used to take his granddaughters to USC women’s basketball games. The process was simple – no matter who the Gamecocks were playing, Fulton would take his girls, show his USC ID at the gate and walk in.

Seats were pick-and-choose. There were times the Fulton family had sections to themselves in the cavernous 18,000-seat Colonial Life Arena.

“Let’s put it this way,” Fulton chuckled this week. “I used to sit in the second row, fifth row. That all stopped when there were no seats anymore.”

Want a seat for Monday’s clash between the No. 2 Gamecocks and No. 1 Connecticut, the three-time defending national champs? Take out a loan – tickets for the sold-out game were going for more than the national championship game – in football.

The game has been announced as the first sellout for a women’s basketball game in CLA history. It will be the largest crowd to ever watch a women’s game in South Carolina.

Counting this game, USC contests have logged seven of the 10 largest crowds to watch any women’s game nationwide this year.

The architect of it all, Dawn Staley, is still amazed.

“To win as many games as we’ve won … it’s the direct impact of our fans and the way they’ve come in this building and created a home-court advantage like no other,” she said. “I put it up against any university in what our fans have been able to create here at home.”

The Gamecocks have won 45 straight at CLA, a streak that will face its biggest test against the No. 1 Huskies. The line is that USC will have to play perfect to win or perhaps slightly less than perfect with the aid of a raucous crowd.

“I don’t think the fans really understand how it feels when we might be in a drought one time, but when we come down and just hearing all the fans roaring, you can see the opponents kind of getting shaken up a little bit,” sophomore forward A’ja Wilson said. “Now we’re home, they’re in our house.”

Fulton, who has attended games since 2000, remembers the rise. There was a brief uptick before Staley arrived and then USC slid back. Staley coming in still featured a four-year slog to get to the NCAA Tournament, but once USC reached it, there was no looking back.

“I don’t keep perfect records, but I can’t imagine I’ve missed very many games over the past 15 years, win or lose,” Fulton said. “I think the girls have always competed hard. They just didn’t have the talent.

“It’s just been fun to see how the fans have gotten behind this program. Dawn has really built the program.”

Staley’s enthusiastic approach to social media, creating initiatives for her fans to embrace (slogans, T-shirts, bus trips to away games) and a successful team has made CLA the best women’s basketball atmosphere in America. Lines are in the street before games and Staley has credited the crowd numerous times for big wins – such as this year’s season-opener against Ohio State.

She’s re-paid the fans’ loyalty with a team that’s been one of the best in the country the past three years. She wants to give them one more gift Monday.

“I don’t know if UConn will be intimidated by our crowd or the situation, they’ve been in those situations before, but I’m hoping,” Staley said. “I don’t know if they’ve played in front of 18,000 people in a regular-season game. So maybe that gives us a little bit of edge, just being at home.”

This story was originally published February 7, 2016 at 7:16 PM with the headline "USC hoping to take advantage of home court against Connecticut."