No. 5 Gamecocks take care of business on the road against Alabama
South Carolina women’s basketball kicked off the new year by leaning heavily on its older players, riding strong performances from a pair of juniors to a 77-60 win Monday over Alabama on the road.
Junior guard Destanni Henderson led the team with 20 points and five assists, also tallying eight rebounds and a steal, while junior forward Victaria Saxton added 15 points and six offensive rebounds.
“(Victaria) and Destanni are best friends,” coach Dawn Staley said. “Their personalities are very similar in that they’re unassuming, they don’t like all the fanfare, you know, but they get the job done.”
The No. 5 Gamecocks never trailed in the contest, seizing the lead on an early layup from sophomore forward Aliyah Boston. After racing out to a quick 7-0 advantage, they let the previously undefeated Crimson Tide creep back into the game, eventually tying it at 15 late in the first quarter.
But Boston put USC back ahead with a free throw, and the score never was knotted again as the Gamecocks dominated the second quarter. Henderson poured in six points as part of a 9-0 run, and USC held Alabama without a field goal for more than five minutes.
Throughout the game, South Carolina held the clear advantage inside, with Boston and sophomore guard Brea Beal pulling down 10 rebounds each and Saxton leading the way to 22 second-chance points.
“We knew coming into the game it was going to have to be where we defended the glass,” Alabama coach Kristy Curry said. “And obviously we didn’t do that — 55 to 31 (rebounding margin). We just got annihilated on the glass.”
3 OBSERVATIONS
1. Staley said before the game that she had stressed to her players that Henderson needed to get her shots, adding that Henderson should average more than 10 points per game.
Sure enough, Henderson had 11 points by halftime, not to mention five rebounds and three assists. And when the Gamecocks seemed to relax a little in the third quarter, letting Alabama hang around, Henderson chipped in seven more points to keep USC going.
“It was great to see her get it going. It was great to see her run our basketball team and get other people involved,” Staley said. “She had five assists, she had eight rebounds, so it was definitely a good game for her. I know she has to feel good about it.”
2. Alabama’s leading scorer, forward Jasmine Walker, was averaging nearly 22 points per game. Against USC’s defense, she had 16, with half of those points contained to one 79-second stretch in the in the first quarter and several more not coming until late, when the outcome wasn’t in doubt.
For the most part, Walker was simply ineffective, going 6-of-15 from the field. And overall, the Crimson Tide’s offense labored, shooting under 40% for the contest. It wasn’t a flawless night for Carolina’s defense though. Alabama guard Jordan Lewis lit up the Gamecocks to the tune of 28 points, getting to the free throw line with consistency.
“It’s the grittiness that’s what’s missing ... when Jordan Lewis put her team on her back and she scored, we fouled her,” Staley said. “We just didn’t get stops when we needed to get stops until we actually had to put somebody else on her and changed the way we were defending her.”
3. With junior guard Destiny Littleton sidelined, the Gamecock rotation was already a little short — and sophomore forward Laeticia Amihere forced coach Dawn Staley to shorten that rotation even more, struggling whenever she was on the floor with five turnovers and 1-of-7 shooting. That left USC relying on seven players for the majority of the contest.
NEXT USC BASKETBALL GAME
Who: No. 5 South Carolina (7-1) vs. Georgia (9-1)
When: 7 p.m. Thursday
Where: Colonial Life Arena
Watch: Streaming online on SEC Network Plus via WatchESPN
South Carolina vs Alabama box score
SOUTH CAROLINA (7-1)—Boston 2-10 1-2 5, Saxton 6-11 3-7 15, Beal 4-6 0-0 8, Cooke 8-17 0-0 18, Henderson 7-16 5-6 20, Amihere 1-7 1-2 3, Wesolek 0-0 0-0 0, Grissett 3-5 2-7 8, Thompson 0-0 0-0 0, Russell 0-2 0-0 0, Team 0-0 0-0 0, Totals 31-74 12-24 77
ALABAMA (8-1)—Copeland 4-8 0-0 8, Walker 6-15 1-2 16, Abrams 0-3 1-4 1, Barber 1-5 1-2 3, Lewis 9-21 9-11 28, Benjamin 0-0 0-0 0, Craig Cruce 0-2 0-0 0, Gordon 0-0 0-0 0, Jones 0-0 0-0 0, Rice 2-2 0-0 4, Team 0-0 0-0 0, Totals 22-56 12-19 60
Halftime—South Carolina 37-26. 3-Point Goals—South Carolina 3-8 (Beal 0-2, Cooke 2-3, Henderson 1-2, Grissett 0-1), Alabama 4-16 (Walker 3-7, Abrams 0-1, Barber 0-2, Lewis 1-5, Craig Cruce 0-1). Assists—South Carolina 9 (Henderson 5), Alabama 9 (Lewis 4). Fouled Out—None. Rebounds—South Carolina 55 (Saxton 6-6), Alabama 31 (Copeland 3-7). Total Fouls—South Carolina 14, Alabama 21. Technical Fouls—None. A—637.
This story was originally published January 4, 2021 at 8:52 PM.
