South Carolina vs. UConn women’s basketball: How to watch, what to watch for
Who: No. 1/2 South Carolina (22-1, 10-0 SEC) vs. No. 4/6 UConn (20-2, 10-0 American)
When: 7 p.m. Monday
Where: Colonial Life Arena
Watch: ESPN2
Listen: 107.5 FM in Columbia area
South Carolina projected starters: G Tyasha Harris, G Zia Cooke, G Brea Beal, F Mikiah Herbert Harrigan, F/C Aliyah Boston
South Carolina’s last game: 86-65 win over No. 25 Arkansas
UConn projected starters: G Crystal Dangerfield, G Christyn Williams, G Anna Makurat, F Megan Walker, F Olivia Nelson-Ododa
UConn’s last game: 94-55 win over Memphis
Last meeting: UConn won, 97-79, at home
Out for the game: Freshman forward Laeticia Amihere is set to return to the Gamecock bench after spending time competing with the Canadian national team, but she won’t play against UConn after flying from Belgium just before the game starts, Staley said.
Warren Nolan’s R1 projection: South Carolina 75, UConn 67
What to watch for
1. Olivia Nelson-Ododa vs. Aliyah Boston
One of the most vital matchups in what should be an intense game will take place in the post, where two 6-foot-5 young stars will be battling for supremacy. Nelson-Ododa and Boston were both ranked in the top five of their recruiting class and both had UConn and South Carolina among their finalists.
“Boston and Nelson-Ododa is a really good matchup,” national analyst Debbie Antonelli said. “I think they’ll match up immediately to start the game.”
Boston has the edge in girth, which will make it hard for Nelson-Ododa to move her off the block, while UConn coach Geno Auriemma has been pushing Nelson-Ododa to embrace the physicality of the low post, something Boston noted.
“She’s very physical post player. She runs the floor pretty well, so I just really need to stay on top of her throughout the whole game,” Boston said.
2. Slowing Megan Walker
UConn’s top scorer is junior forward Megan Walker, a former No. 1 recruit in the nation — she’s averaging 19.5 points per game, shooting 45.9% from the field and 42.5% from 3-point range. She also averages 8.95 rebounds and 3.09 assists per contest. So how does Dawn Staley plan on taking her out of the game?
“It’s hard, they don’t foul as much. I mean, for us, we just gotta speed her up and not give her her comfortable shots in the flow of their offense,” Staley said. “Because when her feet are set and she’s by herself, she’s very, very accurate. Just like all of them. I think we just have to disrupt and create some disruption in their offense.”
In UConn’s two losses this season, Walker shot a combined 8-for-36 from the field, for 22%. She was still able to average 13 points, 7.5 rebounds and 3 assists in those games, but her inefficiency cost the Huskies. Especially against Oregon, the Ducks didn’t do anything too different to slow her down but focused on making her uncomfortable, coach Kelly Graves told the Hartford Courant.
Similarly, the Gamecocks might not choose to assign one player to guard Walker on Monday night — senior forward Mikiah Herbert Harrigan has shown the speed necessary to stick with guards, shutting down Arkansas star Chelsea Dungee, while freshman guard Brea Beal has enough length to match Walker and has taken on tough assignments before.
3. Offense, offense, offense
Right now, South Carolina is averaging 83.4 points per game, compared to 78.3 for UConn. The Gamecocks have never had a higher-scoring offense than UConn under Dawn Staley, and that could be crucial Monday — in their two losses, the Huskies gave up 74 points each time, tied for second most on the season.
“Score. Score. You gotta be able to score,” Staley said of what she saw as the difference in those two games. “And I thought Baylor’s length bothered them, and their athleticism, and just speeding them up and forcing Megan Walker, they just cut her production in half. When you can do that, when you can take one of their bigs out of it, it just puts so much pressure on everybody else to score. So I don’t know if we’re capable of doing that, but we gotta do it on some level.
“But we certainly gotta get up and down the floor and score the basketball.”
According to Her Hoops Stats, Connecticut likes to play at a more deliberate pace, ranking 153rd nationally in possessions per 40 minutes. South Carolina, by comparison, ranks 65th and has thrived with transition offense and attacking the fast-break. Whose pace controls the game could be crucial.
