‘Buckets off the bench’ power South Carolina in SEC tourney win
Early on in the SEC tournament quarterfinals against Georgia, South Carolina women’s basketball looked out of whack.
Senior point guard Tyasha Harris, normally unflappable, turned the ball over three times. SEC Freshman of the Year Aliyah Boston was 2-for-6 from the field. And the top-seeded Gamecocks weren’t blowing out the No. 9 seed Bulldogs like they had done to so many teams this season.
Then, a quick 7-0 burst, all in the final minute of the first quarter, put USC up 23-15. The game never got within six points again.
Fueling that outburst was USC’s bench — junior guard LeLe Grissett, junior guard Destanni Henderson and sophomore forward Victaria Saxton scored all the points, in addition to two steals and a block.
And that wasn’t all the bench contributed in the victory, as Grissett, Henderson and Saxton all scored in double figures, with Henderson and Grissett chipping in team highs in assists (7) and steals (4), respectively. Fellow reserve Laeticia Amihere added seven points and seven rebounds to give the bench 40 points, nearly 15 more than its season average.
“I thought they played tremendously,” coach Dawn Staley said. “I thought they played like they were ready to go, like ‘I should be playing more, I should be starting.’ They’re not gonna say that, but that’s what you want. Destanni’s been super aggressive, which we like. LeLe’s always been energetic, she got her hands on some balls, and that’s what we want.”
On a day when the starters began the game “jittery” and “rattled,” in the words of Staley, the reserves righted the ship.
“We brought a lot of energy off the bench,” Grissett said. “We knew as soon as we got in the game, we got to play together, push the ball, work hard. Every time we sit on the bench, we talk about how we’re going to impact the game.”
Their performance earned them high praise from Georgia coach Joni Taylor, who saw USC’s bench score 34 points in the teams’ first meeting on Jan. 26
“I’ve said this is, in my mind, Dawn’s most complete team she’s put on the floor since she’s been at South Carolina,” Taylor said. “Really good at every position. Honestly, since we played them, their subs have sometimes hurt us more than their starters.
“Let’s be frank, everybody springing off the bench could be starting somewhere else. It shows the camaraderie they have, that she’s got them all playing well, no matter if they start, don’t start. In the minutes they play, they’re productive when they’re on the floor.You just never can get a break because they just come in and they keep coming at you, coming at you, because of their skill set and how good they are on both ends of the floor.”
On a roster full of talent, staying positive and taking advantage of every opportunity is key, Henderson said. She started several games as a freshman but has come off the bench exclusively this season.
“I just have to talk to myself, as funny as that sounds,” Henderson said. “You just gotta stay positive and keep telling yourself, you know, you’re gonna go in and you’re gonna play with energy. We tell each other on the bench, we’ll be like, ‘Hey, you got no energy.’ So we just keep each other motivated and really just have a tough mindset and when you get in the game, you make big things happen.”
While Friday was the rare example of the bench helping out the starters after a poor start, there’s usually pressure to match their play too, Saxton said. But that hasn’t translated to animosity.
“It started from us cheering on the bench, it starts there,” Saxton said. “And then it continues as we’re on the court and the starters are cheering us.”
The Gamecocks’ depth is what sets them apart from most teams, Staley said. And entering the tournament, she said she wanted to see her reserve post players in particular to score more. Amihere and Saxton combined for 18.
“Scoring is just, we have to go out there and work hard to get our buckets, and it’s not easy. It’s tournament time, it gets the best of everybody. So that was important for us today to just go in and try to get some buckets off the bench,” Amihere said.
When do the Gamecocks play at SEC tournament?
Who: No. 1 South Carolina vs. No. 5 Arkansas
What: Semifinals of the SEC tournament
When: 5 p.m. Saturday
Where: Bon Secours Wellness Arena, Greenville, South Carolina
Watch: ESPNU
Listen: 107.5 FM in Columbia area, SEC Radio on SiriusXM
This story was originally published March 6, 2020 at 5:21 PM.
