Te’a Cooper injured, South Carolina struggles late in loss to Kentucky

South Carolina women’s basketball lost its leading scorer early on Thursday against Kentucky, but it didn’t sink the Gamecocks.

Turnovers and poor shooting did, as USC dropped a home contest to the Wildcats, 65-57.

Carolina (19-7, 11-2 SEC) shot just 34.6 percent from the field and turned the ball over 21 times, the team’s worst marks in SEC play this year.

“I thought we got good shots. It’s the turnovers that kill you,” coach Dawn Staley said. “It wasn’t that bad, as far as (Kentucky scoring) just 19 points off 21 turnovers. It could have been a lot worse. We just weren’t very good. We weren’t very good at executing, we weren’t good at getting the ball out of traps, making decisions and going into traps.”

Kentucky (22-5, 9-4 SEC), meanwhile, got strong performances from its guard trio of freshman Rhyne Howard, senior Maci Morri and senior Taylor Murray, who combined for 36 points.

The Gamecocks took an early 7-4 lead, but their momentum was blunted with 6:15 left in the first quarter, when junior guard Cooper had to leave the game with an ankle sprain. Staley said afterward she was unsure of Cooper’s status moving forward.

With Cooper out, USC struggled the rest of the quarter, turning the ball over nine times and shooting just 33 percent from the field.

“We lost an experience guard, and in situations like this, you need an experienced guard, especially one that can attack the basket a little bit,” Staley said of Cooper’s absence.

Kentucky struggled to take advantage of USC’s mistakes, though, and led just 13-11 after 10 minutes. But early in the second quarter, Howard gave her team a nine-point lead in the second quarter with an 8-0 run all by herself. At the same time, the Gamecocks missed six consecutive shots and were just 4-of-13 from the field in the quarter.

“We couldn’t make interior passes, we could not get it past the first line of their press for a large portion of the game. They had a good game plan, and we didn’t execute,” Staley said.

Frustration started to show just before halftime, as Staley expressed frustration with the referees — USC was called for eight fouls in the first half, many with which she disagreed.

Kentucky’s inability to turn its takeaways into points seemed to come back to bite it after the break — USC upped its defensive pressure and put together a 6-0 run to retake the lead at 33-32. Free throws also helped, as the Gamecocks took 11 in the quarter to Kentucky’s zero. Junior guard Tyasha Harris had six points in the period to lead Carolina to a 43-40 lead.

However, Kentucky came right back in the fourth, as Morris scored six unanswered points, Howard added a 5-0 spurt of her own and Kentucky pulled off a 13-3 run. Carolina never got within one possession again.

Despite their significant size advantage at forward, which Staley pinpointed as key before the game, the Gamecocks only outscored the Wildcats 24-18 in the paint, as UK sold out to stop them, Harris said.

“They did a pretty good job of once the ball went into the post, they had four people on it. And as soon as our post players turned around, they were right there so it was kinda hard to get it in, throw it back out and get it back in,” Harris said

NEXT

South Carolina goes on the road to face Tennessee on Sunday in Knoxville. The game will be televised on ESPN2.

BOX SCORE

McKinney 2-4 0-0 5, Wyatt 2-9 0-0 4, Howard 6-12 3-3 17, Morris 3-12 4-5 12, Murray 7-11 2-2 17, Anyagaligbo 0-1 2-2 2, Green 2-5 0-0 4, Paschal 0-2 2-2 2, Roper 1-1 0-0 2, Totals 23-57 13-14 65.

Jennings 3-6 6-6 12, Saxton 3-8 1-4 7, Cooper 1-1 0-0 2, Cuevas-Moore 1-11 8-10 10, Harris 4-12 1-2 10, Grissett 0-0 0-0 0, Herbert Harrigan 1-2 0-0 2, Jackson 1-2 0-0 2, Cliney 0-0 0-0 0, Henderson 4-8 0-0 12, Perry 0-2 0-0 0, Totals 18-52 16-22 57.

3-Point Goals: Kentucky 6-12 (McKinney 1-2, Wyatt 0-1, Howard 2-4, Morris 2-3, Murray 1-1, Green 0-1), South Carolina 5-20 (Jennings 0-1, Cuevas-Moore 0-6, Harris 1-6, Jackson 0-1, Henderson 4-5, Perry 0-1). Assists: Kentucky 12 (Murray 5), South Carolina 12 (Harris 7). Fouled Out: None. Rebounds: Kentucky 34 (Murray 8), South Carolina 34 (Jennings 9). Total Fouls: Kentucky 20, South Carolina 17. Technical Fouls: None.

This story was originally published February 21, 2019 at 8:56 PM.

Greg Hadley

The State

Covering University of South Carolina football, women’s basketball and baseball for GoGamecocks and The State, along with Columbia city council and other news.