South Carolina women overcome sluggish night to grind out gritty win over Dayton

Dawn Staley wanted her point guard to be more aggressive. Tyasha Harris made it happen.

In an ugly, gritty contest at Colonial Life Arena on Wednesday night, No. 18 South Carolina overcame a sluggish start to defeat Dayton, 65-55, and snap a rare losing streak. Harris led the Gamecocks (4-3) with a season-high 24 points, 18 of which came in the second half.

“Ty can probably have these nights as much as she wants to have them,” coach Dawn Staley said. “She has to be aggressive and show this team ... she took that upon herself to recognize that she’s gotta put a lot of shots up. That goes against what she naturally likes to do, but for our team to be successful, she’s gotta go off course a little bit.”

Much of that offensive production came as Harris attacked the basket in transition, speeding past defenders and upping the pace of play. After a while, Staley said, she and her staff stopped calling specific plays to run and let Harris loose, though Harris said there weren’t many possessions when that happened.

“Most of the time, we did run the (set) offense. It just looked like a motion (offense) because we were running around and trying to find the open shot and the open person,” Harris said.

In Staley’s eyes, the whole team increasing its pace was what made the difference after Dayton came out hit six of its first seven shot attempts, leading 16-3 with 4:18 left in the first quarter as South Carolina missed nine of its first 10 tries.

“We just pushed the tempo. We had to speed the game up. They were picking us apart because we weren’t aggressive as we needed to be. And once we sped the game up, we were able to just move a little faster, go downhill a little more,” Staley said.

The Gamecocks managed to reverse Dayton’s hot start with a 10-0 run of its own to end the first quarter, but the Flyers refused to fall apart and matched every USC spurt with one of their own to knot the game at 30 at halftime.

In the third quarter, Dayton rediscovered its offense, going 5-for-5 on 3-pointers. Harris, however, started to take over with 12 points of her own, eight of which came in the final 4:20, to preserve a narrow two-point lead heading into the fourth.

Over the game’s final 10 minutes, however, Dayton managed just one field goal on 13 field goal attempts and scored only four points, tied for the fewest South Carolina has ever allowed in a game’s final quarter.

Helping to power that defense, sophomore forward Lele Grissett grabbed a team-high nine rebounds and junior forward Mikiah Herbert Harrigan tallied four blocks.

“We just talked to each other, we was like, ‘If you need help, just say something.’ Communication was key,” Grissett said.

Wednesday’s victory ensures South Carolina will not have a three-game losing streak for the first time since 2010, and gives the squad a little momentum heading into a big matchup with No. 4 Baylor.

“It’s very important, just to get our confidence back up,” Harris said.

Star of the game: Harris had six points at halftime and alternated between looking out of control on drives and tentative in shooting. After the break, she took over just like Staley wanted and looked like the player who helped keep South Carolina afloat when A’ja Wilson was out last season.

Stat of the game: Points in the paint were 32-18 in favor of South Carolina, and that’s without counting all the times Dayton hacked away to force USC to the free throw line.

Play of the game: With 1:31 left to play, the Gamecocks up by five and the shot clock running down, redshirt senior guard Nelly Perry drained a long 3 with a hand in her face to essentially ice the game.

Injury report: Staley said after the game that redshirt junior guard Te’a Cooper, who played 14 minutes and missed the game’s final 17 minutes, suffered an injury that kept her out, but declined to say what the nature of the injury was.

Next

South Carolina will host No. 4 Baylor at Colonial Life Arena on Sunday at 7 p.m. The game will be televised on ESPN2.

Box score

DAYTON (2-4) | Chandler 6-11 0-0 15, Wilmoth 2-4 0-0 5, Bradshaw 5-13 1-2 11, Cannatelli 3-10 4-4 13, Scaife 3-13 2-2 8, Dennis 0-2 0-0 0, Whitehead 0-0 0-0 0, Fowler 1-3 0-0 3, Giacone 0-0 0-0 0, Phillips 0-0 0-0 0, Ward 0-1 0-0 0, Totals 20-57 7-8 55.

SOUTH CAROLINA (4-3) | Grissett 2-3 4-6 8, Jennings 4-8 1-4 9, Cliney 1-5 0-0 2, Cooper 0-6 0-0 0, Harris 9-18 4-4 24, Herbert Harrigan 2-8 5-6 9, Jackson 1-2 0-2 2, Saxton 0-0 0-0 0, Cuevas-Moore 0-1 0-0 0, Henderson 0-0 1-2 1, Perry 4-6 1-2 10, Totals 23-57 16-26 65.

3-Point Goals: Dayton 8-17 (Chandler 3-7, Wilmoth 1-1, Bradshaw 0-1, Cannatelli 3-5, Dennis 0-1, Fowler 1-2), South Carolina 3-12 (Cliney 0-2, Cooper 0-2, Harris 2-5, Jackson 0-1, Cuevas-Moore 0-1, Perry 1-1). Assists: Dayton 9 (Bradshaw 3), South Carolina 3 (Cliney 1). Fouled Out: Dayton Chandler, Rebounds_Dayton 30 (Bradshaw 6), South Carolina 41 (Grissett 9). Total Fouls: Dayton 23, South Carolina 11. Technical Fouls: None. Attendance: 10,423.

This story was originally published November 28, 2018 at 8:55 PM.