Seniors lead the way as Gamecocks cap perfect SEC season with win over Texas A&M
When it was her turn to walk onto the floor at Colonial Life Arena for the Senior Day ceremony, Mikiah Herbert Harrigan was already in tears.
The senior forward’s journey with South Carolina women’s basketball has had its highs — a national championship as a freshman — and its lows — she briefly entered the transfer portal this past offseason and seemed set to leave USC. But in the final regular season home game of her career, she was rock solid, leading the No. 1 Gamecocks to a 60-52 win over No. 12 Texas A&M on Sunday.
“It was pretty easy because I knew we have a game to play,” Herbert Harrigan said of her pregame emotions. “And I know how we approach our games, so I just had to set that aside and just get to the game. “
The victory secures a perfect 16-0 record in conference play for USC and breaks the program record for most consecutive victories, stretching the Gamecocks’ win streak to 23 games.
And Herbert Harrigan got it all started, scoring South Carolina’s first 13 points en route to a 20-point, eight-rebound game. That helped pick up the slack while her teammates started 0-for-8 from the field and fellow forward Aliyah Boston spent most of the first quarter on the bench after picking up a quick foul.
“Once she scored our first nine, I was like, she’s got it going on, let’s try to give her as many touches as possible,” coach Dawn Staley said. “You know, I think senior night can work in a lot of different directions. It can help you, it can hurt you, especially being as emotional as it was for both (senior guard Tyasha Harris) and Kiki.”
Texas A&M, meanwhile, didn’t start star player Chennedy Carter, the SEC’s second-leading scorer. Without her, the Aggies were still able to match USC early, spreading its offense around and taking a 7-5 lead.
But with Herbert Harrigan still producing and getting a little help on the score sheet from Harris and junior guard LeLe Grissett, South Carolina responded with a 14-5 run to end the quarter. Harris posted nine points, six assists, five rebounds and three steals on her senior day.
Herbert Harrigan started the second quarter on the bench, while Boston took her place dominating down low to help stretch the lead to 13.
“Boston is going to be special,” Texas A&M coach Gary Blair said. “That’s the Moses Malone of college basketball.”
Carter, after playing just a few minutes and staying quiet in the first, came to life to get the Aggies back in it, sinking three consecutive buckets. For the most part, both teams labored to get much of anything going on the offensive end — Texas A&M was just 1-of-7 on layups in the first half, while South Carolina shot just 26% from the field not counting Herbert Harrigan.
“Senior day is just emotionally draining. I think probably every one of our players that played, it impacted some kind of way, whether they sped up the things that they don’t normally do or we haven’t done in a long time, just being indecisive,” Staley said. “They all wanted to impress our seniors, they all wanted to be a part of helping them end their regular season on the winning side of things. So I think that that had an ill effect on our play overall.”
In addition to her scoring, Herbert Harrigan also made an impact on the defensive end with three blocks, including a particularly hard swat late in the second quarter that ignited the crowd. After getting the ball back, she finished a layup in transition to help put South Carolina’s lead at 31-22 going into halftime.
Carter had a couple of layups to start the third quarter as Texas A&M trimmed the deficit to six points, but she went down after committing a foul and immediately hobbled off the floor. With her on the bench, the Gamecocks went on an 8-2 run, including six points in less than a minute.
Her return didn’t change much, though, as she wound up shooting just 6-of-19 from the field.
“We told (our young players) exactly how good Chennedy is — I mean she’s very, very good,” Staley said. “And I thought she would just play off the crowd, because she came in here, she scored almost 40 points against us last year. And they were just up for the challenge. I think we painted a picture of how good she was and they painted a picture of defending that.”
Neither offense was able to do all that much down the stretch, with the two teams combining to shoot 12-of-49 from the field in the final 15 minutes. That didn’t matter as South Carolina cruised home, with both seniors checking out to a standing ovation in the final few moments.
“It was bittersweet, just because knowing it was our last regular season game, you know it’s going to come, but you don’t know how fast it is gonna come,” Harris said. “But we’re to this point, we enjoyed our four years here, and we don’t want to be anywhere else.”
WHEN DO THE GAMECOCKS PLAY NEXT?
What: SEC Tournament
Who: No. 1 South Carolina (29-1, 16-0 SEC) vs. Winner of No. 8 seed vs. No. 9 seed
When: Noon Friday
Where: Bon Secours Wellness Arena, Greenville, South Carolina
Watch: SEC Network
Listen: 107.5 FM in Columbia area
Box score
TEXAS A&M (22-7)—Jones 1-9 1-2 3, Johnson 3-6 0-0 6, Washington 0-5 1-2 1, Wells 4-15 5-6 15, Wilson 5-15 0-0 10, Rael-Whitsitt 1-1 0-0 2, Dreimane 0-1 0-0 0, Carter 6-19 0-0 12, Green 1-3 1-1 3, Williams 0-0 0-0 0, Team 0-0 0-0 0, Totals 21-74 8-11 52
SOUTH CAROLINA (29-1)—Boston 6-10 1-2 13, Herbert Harrigan 6-12 7-8 20, Beal 0-1 1-2 1, Cooke 2-9 1-4 5, Harris 3-12 3-4 9, Amihere 0-2 0-0 0, Saxton 2-4 0-0 4, Wesolek 0-0 0-0 0, Grissett 1-3 2-2 4, Henderson 2-6 0-0 4, Thompson 0-0 0-0 0, Team 0-0 0-0 0, Totals 22-59 15-22 60
Halftime—South Carolina 31-22. 3-Point Goals—Texas A&M 2-7 (Washington 0-1, Wells 2-4, Wilson 0-1, Carter 0-1), South Carolina 1-10 (Herbert Harrigan 1-2, Cooke 0-3, Harris 0-4, Henderson 0-1). Assists—Texas A&M 9 (Washington 6), South Carolina 10 (Harris 6). Fouled Out—Texas A&M Jones. Rebounds—Texas A&M 46 (Team 7-8), South Carolina 45 (Boston 4-12). Total Fouls—Texas A&M 16, South Carolina 10. Technical Fouls—None. A—18,000.
This story was originally published March 1, 2020 at 1:56 PM.
