No. 4 South Carolina survives scare from unranked LSU to grab SEC road win
Dawn Staley knew going in that LSU could give her South Carolina women’s basketball team some trouble on the road.
“Their matchup zone tends to give us problems. It has given a lot of teams that they play, especially in our conference, some issues,” Staley said before Sunday’s contest.
Sure enough, the Tigers gave the Gamecocks all they could handle for most of Sunday afternoon — it was only with a large surge in the final few minutes that No. 4 USC was able to escape Baton Rouge with a 69-65 victory.
Things were tense throughout, as the Gamecocks started 0-for-5 from the field and never got on track early against that matchup zone defense. By halftime, South Carolina had as many turnovers as made field goals at nine and were shooting just 32.1%, trailing by two points.
“We were dribbling too much, dribbled in traffic and that type of defense, they encourage you to dribble, because they collapse on you and they poke the ball away,” Staley said.
So the Gamecocks adjusted. Sophomore guard Zia Cooke took over point guard duties, while junior Destanni Henderson shifted more off the ball and senior guard LeLe Grissett got more time at the “four” in a smaller, faster lineup. And Staley had a simple message.
“If you’re not shooting, then you’re passing,” Staley said. “Nothing else in between. Don’t hold it, don’t think about it. Move the ball, shift the matchup zone.”
Sure enough, the offense opened up. The Gamecocks shot 62% in the second half and scored twice as many points as they had in the first half. Four USC players hit double figures, led by a double-double of 20 points and 14 rebounds from sophomore forward Aliyah Boston.
But LSU refused to go away. Senior guard Kayhla Pointer had nine of her team-high 18 points in the third quarter to keep the Tigers just barely ahead going into the fourth, 45-43. Still, the change toward up-tempo play favored the Gamecocks.
“In the second half, to put up ... 40 points and them 46 points, I felt like that played more in their favor, even though we were scoring the basketball,” LSU coach Nikki Fargas said.
Finally, South Carolina got one final surge late that the Tigers couldn’t match, outscoring them 13-5 to put the game out of reach. And of those 13 points, 11 came off fast breaks.
“LSU wanted to take the air out of the ball and walk the ball up, pick apart on the defensive side of the ball,” Staley said. “So I just thought we just needed to pick the pace up, make them play faster, maybe turn them over, but just disrupt the pace at which they wanted to play.”
3 OBSERVATIONS
1. LeLe late
Going into the fourth quarter, South Carolina’s bench players had been held completely scoreless after Staley had said the Gamecocks needed more production from their second unit. But reserve senior guard LeLe Grissett came up big down the stretch, adding eight points and three assists in the final 10 minutes to play a crucial role in the comeback.
“There was a huge benefit of putting LeLe in there from a defensive standpoint, but her run-outs and made layups really gave us the separation we needed to win the game,” Staley said.
2. Fast-break discrepancy
After one half, South Carolina had just eight points off fast breaks, compared to four for LSU. After Staley’s halftime adjustments, though, the Gamecocks finished the game with 30 points coming in transition, while the Tigers were held to just six.
3. Gotta be a 2-pointer
South Carolina hasn’t been great from the free-throw line this year, shooting just 62.9%. But Sunday was a particularly poor showing for the Gamecocks, as they went just 13-of-25 from the charity stripe.
The Gamecocks also weren’t great from 3-point territory, going just 2-of-15 from beyond the arc.
NEXT USC BASKETBALLL GAME
Who: No. 4 South Carolina (12-1, 7-0 SEC) vs. No. 19 Mississippi State (8-4, 3-3 SEC)
When: 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 28
Where: Humphrey Coliseum, Starkville, Mississippi
Watch: ESPN
This story was originally published January 24, 2021 at 2:58 PM.
