Huge first quarter, career day for Bianca Cuevas-Moore power USC past Tennessee
Coming off a demoralizing loss, playing sluggishly to start its past few games and without its leading scorer, South Carolina women’s basketball needed a shot of life Sunday against Tennessee.
Dawn Staley and her team got that in the form of an electrifying performance from veteran guard Bianca Cuevas-Moore and one of the Gamecocks’ best first quarters of the season, leading to a big 82-67 road win on the road over the Lady Vols.
USC (20-7, 12-2 SEC) exploded to a 27-11 lead Sunday, capped off by a 13-0 run that had the UT faithful stunned, and never looked back. The key to the hot start was transition offense, something Staley has preached as a strength of this team since the preseason.
“It’s always been emphasized, since the season started, coach Staley wants us to run up and down,” senior guard Donyiah Cliney said. “So we just made sure we stayed true to us, stayed true to our system and were able to run in transition.”
The Gamecocks did that by starting four guards for the first time in three weeks and aggressively pushing the pace, even without injured junior guard Te’a Cooper.
“We prepared really well for this game, so that was a good thing for us. We wanted to show coach Staley we still are as good as we are, so that was pretty much it,” Cuevas-Moore said. She finished the game with a career-high 28 points and helped jump-start the transition offense with four steals as well.
When Tennessee coach Holly Warlick called a timeout with 2:42 left in the first quarter and the score 20-11 in favor of USC, half of the Gamecocks’ points were on the fast-break.
Junior guard Tyasha Harris had six assists after the first quarter and 14 assists on the day, a career high for her. With Cooper out, Staley wanted her point guard to attack the basket, and she did, attempting a season-high 19 field goals. She only made five but still managed to make an impact, Staley said.
“I thought Ty did a great job at just really facilitating, finding the people that needed to shoot the ball. A lot of times Bianca Cuevas-Moore was the recipient of that, but she found (senior guard Donyiah Cliney) too. ... She did what a point guard is supposed to do in a game like this,” Staley said.
Cliney also tied her career high with 16 points while playing a season-high 38 minutes. As a whole, Staley only deployed six players in significant minutes all game, her shortest rotation of the season. She said she did so to prioritize experience in a hostile environment with the expectation of intense defensive pressure.
The downside of that move, Staley acknowledged, was that her players seemed to tire in the third quarter, when Tennessee rallied to get within seven points and South Carolina went more than five minutes between field goals. But redshirt senior forward Alexis Jennings led all scorers with 13 second-half points and pounded away inside, boosting the Gamecocks to a strong fourth-quarter finish and wire-to-wire win.
“I thought Tennessee mixed up playing a little bit more zone early on, so we couldn’t really get the angles to get her the ball, but the moment they went man, we found opportunities to move the defense around a little bit and iso her down in the paint, and she delivered for us,” Staley said of Jennings.
Next: South Carolina stays on the road, traveling to Auburn to face the Tigers on Thursday. The game will tip at 7 p.m., streaming on SEC Network Plus.
BOX SCORE
| SOUTH CAROLINA (20-7) |
|---|
Jackson 2-4 0-0 4, Jennings 7-9 1-2 15, Cliney 5-9 4-4 16, Cuevas-Moore 9-18 6-8 28, Harris 5-19 1-2 11, Herbert Harrigan 4-11 0-0 8, Saxton 0-0 0-0 0, Henderson 0-0 0-0 0, Totals 32-70 12-16 82.
| TENNESSEE (17-10) |
|---|
Che. Green 5-11 1-1 11, Davis 6-14 2-2 15, Zaa. Green 5-8 2-2 12, Jackson 3-8 0-0 6, Westbrook 4-13 2-2 10, Collins 1-3 0-0 2, Kushkituah 0-2 0-0 0, Burrell 3-7 1-2 7, Massengill 2-2 0-0 4, Totals 29-68 8-9 67.
| South Carolina | 27 | 16 | 17 | 22 | — 82 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tennessee | 11 | 16 | 24 | 16 | — 67 |
3-Point Goals: South Carolina 6-18 (Jackson 0-1, Cliney 2-2, Cuevas-Moore 4-7, Harris 0-7, Herbert Harrigan 0-1), Tennessee 1-3 (Davis 1-1, Jackson 0-1, Westbrook 0-1). Assists: South Carolina 17 (Harris 14), Tennessee 8 (Davis 2). Fouled Out: None. Rebounds: South Carolina 35 (Jennings 7), Tennessee 44 (Che. Green 9). Total Fouls: South Carolina 7, Tennessee 16.
This story was originally published February 24, 2019 at 5:53 PM.
