South Carolina flexes in SEC opener, crushes Kentucky in top-15 showdown
The South Carolina women’s basketball team’s freshmen got their first taste of SEC play Thursday.
Put another way, the rest of the conference got their first taste of USC’s freshmen, as the No. 4 Gamecocks raced to an early lead and cruised past No. 13 Kentucky 99-72, powered mostly by its rookies.
All four of coach Dawn Staley’s five-star freshmen scored in double figures, led by 15 each from guards Zia Cooke and Brea Beal.
“It just shows how hard we like work for this and how well we work together,” Beal said of the message the win sends to SEC opponents. “It just shows, it’s not just one person on the team, it’s us all, and it’s not just offense, it’s defense too and that’s something we work on day in and day out.”
Beal in particular delivered another solid defensive performance after being tasked with covering preseason All-SEC selection Rhyne Howard, a 20-point-per-game scorer. With the help of some double teams, Beal hounded her all over the floor in the early going.
She also put pressure on Howard by attacking her on the offensive side of the ball, scoring the game’s first three points. And with 6:35 left in the first quarter, she combined with senior Tyasha Harris to trap Howard and force a steal and fast-break layup, putting South Carolina up 9-2 and causing Kentucky to call a timeout.
Another steal right out of the break was one of eight Kentucky turnovers in the first quarter, as South Carolina pressed often on inbounds plays and generated 14 points off takeaways. Freshman forward Aliyah Boston also got going early, and she, Beal and Cooke combined for 18 of USC’s 24 first-quarter points.
“Our main focus was pressure,” Boston said. “They are very patient when they come to executing their plays, so we just had to stay locked in and pressure them.”
Kentucky’s only advantage in the early going was on the offensive glass, where the Wildcats pulled down seven offensive rebounds. That edge, however, translated to only a few second-chance points, as UK shot 25% from the field through 10 minutes and trailed 24-12.
And those offensive boards dried up in the second quarter, as South Carolina continued to pull away, stretching its lead to 21 points while Boston and Beal hit double figures in scoring. Howard had 13 points at the break, but on 12 shots and with six turnovers. She finished with 28 on the night.
“We just exhausted her. It was 28 points, but they were insignificant points. ... I think, overall, having Brea on her, having (junior guard LeLe Grissett) come out and play her the bench, having (senior forward Mikiah Herbert-Harrigan) on her little bit, we just had a lot of different people on her. And I just thought it exhausted her to the point where she probably didn’t want to shoot as many shots as she could have taken, and that benefits us,” Staley said.
Kentucky’s offense began to heat up a little in the third quarter, but the Gamecocks managed to extend their lead with a flurry of late free throws and a buzzer-beating layup from junior LeLe Grissett after a Kentucky inbounds pass in the final few seconds was stolen.
Into the fourth quarter, Harris and sophomore forward Victaria Saxton joined the freshmen in double figures, and sophomore guard Destanni Henderson hit a new career high with eight assists as the Gamecocks cruised home.
And one
South Carolina got to the free throw line often and converted at one of its best rates all year, leading to a season-high 26 points from the charity stripe.
Personal foul
Early in the year, Dawn Staley noted that the Gamecocks would get up big early and relax a bit in the third quarter. That problem struck again Thursday, as Kentucky went 5-of-10 from the field and 12-of-13 from the free throw line to cut the lead to 18 at one point.
Tip-in
The Wildcats and Gamecocks have been heated rivals for several years now, and things boiled over with off-setting technical fouls in the fourth quarter on Kentucky’s Amanda Paschal and Zia Cooke, as they appear to exchange words after a basket.
NEXT
Who: No. 4 South Carolina (13-1, 1-0 SEC) vs. Alabama (10-3, 0-0 SEC)
When: 6 p.m. Sunday
Where: Coleman Coliseum in Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Watch: SEC Network
Listen: 107.5 FM in Columbia area
This story was originally published January 2, 2020 at 9:01 PM.
