‘Always good to come home’: A’ja Wilson, former Gamecocks get encore with Team USA
She wasn’t wearing garnet and black, but A’ja Wilson still looked right at home in Colonial Life Arena on Wednesday night.
Wilson, along with two other former USC women’s basketball players and one current one, returned to competition in Columbia as part of USA Basketball’s Red-White intrasquad exhibition ahead of the FIBA Women’s World Cup later this month.
As part of the White team, Wilson scored 16 points and pulled down seven rebounds to help lead her squad to a 100-75 victory. Also on her side, former Gamecock Allisha Gray collected 13 points and four rebounds.
“I think that it was a good showing. It just felt really good to be here, to play back at Colonial Life Arena and play with such great talent as well,” Wilson said.
For the Red team, former USC star Tiffany Mitchell had five points, two rebounds and two assists, while current Gamecock Tyasha Harris had six points and a pair of assists in front of several thousand fans.
“I knew I had so many people cheering me on and wanting me to do well, you kinda could tell. My first shot was an air ball,” Mitchell said. “But then I got it together. But it was just so refreshing to be in front of everybody, I got too excited, but I’m glad I had the opportunity to play here one last time.”
A total of 18 players saw the court at CLA, but the game was especially meaningful for Wilson, Gray and Mitchell, who thought they had played their final games in South Carolina’s arena and reflected on how they have changed since their college careers ended.
“I feel like the level I played at this summer (in the WNBA) was crazy, and I haven’t really had the opportunity to step back and take a look at it,” Wilson said. “But yes, I do feel like I have grown as a player and as a woman. Leaving South Carolina was good for me. I got to experience a lot of different things, of course, in Las Vegas. Being away from everything and everyone, I kinda had time to look back and just see things. And I liked that experience, I really did. But it’s always good to come home.”
For Gray, the opportunity to come back was also a return to her comfort zone — surrounded by a smaller but supportive crowd, she was the Red team’s third-leading scorer.
“I think I did well, played good overall,” Gray said. “I was just loose out there, having fun and staying within my game. Definitely being back here, I just wanted them ... to leave a good taste in their mouth, just remember the last game I played here was a good one.”
Meanwhile, against older, more decorated players, Harris held her own in her first taste of senior international-level play with two silky 3-pointers and 27 minutes on the court.
“I’m just thankful for the opportunity to play ... and compete with one of the greats in the basketball program,” Harris said. “Having A’ja and (Gray) and (Mitchell) out there made me more comfortable.”
Presiding over it all, South Carolina and Team USA head coach Dawn Staley said the game, the culmination of a three-day training camp in Columbia, was an overall success as she and her staff prepare to play for the U.S.’s 10th World Cup title.
“I think the good thing about it was everyone on both teams was playing for one team,” Staley said. “I thought we got better as far as our preparation for the World Cup.”
Staley does not have the final say on which 12 players will make the cut for the World Cup roster — that responsibility goes to a USA Basketball committee. But even without her pushing for Wilson, the Gamecocks’ all-time leading scorer seems to have a good chance to make the team after a historic WNBA rookie season.
First, however, she, Staley, Gray, Mitchell and the rest of the roster pool will travel to Washington D.C. and Bridgeport, Connecticut, for more practices and a pair of exhibition games against Canada and Japan.
This story was originally published September 5, 2018 at 10:35 PM.