Gamecocks use early surge to hold off LSU, sweep season series
In their first meeting of the season, South Carolina women’s basketball could never quite figure out LSU’s pesky matchup zone defense, letting the Tigers hang around and giving them a scare for the No. 1 Gamecocks’ closest SEC win of the season.
In a Valentine’s Day rematch Sunday, USC didn’t make the same mistake.
Early in the 66-59 victory, South Carolina erased a four-point deficit with a 12-0 run of its own and led the rest of the way.
“We wanted to get out to a fast start,” coach Dawn Staley said. “Wanted to take the ball out of (LSU senior guard Khayla Pointer’s) hands early, and that’s one of the dictators of their team. And we did that for the most part.”
Sophomore guard Zia Cooke got that first-quarter run going with four consecutive points, followed by four each from junior guard Destanni Henderson and sophomore forward Aliyah Boston to complete the burst.
The Gamecocks defense, meanwhile, turned up the heat as well, holding the Tigers scoreless for more than six and a half minutes. USC’s length bothered LSU to the tune of two blocks, three steals and eight consecutive missed shots before coach Nikki Fargas called a timeout.
“First quarter was definitely poor shooting, as far as percentage,” Fargas said. “You go 3 for 11 and turn the ball over, it’s gonna make you adjust in the first half, because that’s where we’ve got to be better.”
Though LSU was able to snap that run after the break, the Gamecocks continued to pull away into the second quarter — Henderson and Cooke both hits 3-pointers to reach double figures by halftime.
Into the second half and especially in the fourth quarter, Staley leaned on her bench players, hoping to give them valuable minutes in a meaningful game. That cost the Gamecocks some, as they turned it over eight times in the fourth quarter and let the lead shrink to five points with less than a minute to play. But Staley kept her younger players in and let them struggle through it.
“We have good-playing reserves who aren’t put in the position time and time again to have to play that,” Staley said. “So they won’t know, it’s a foreign place for them. And I hope coming down the stretch, that they will familiarize themselves with playing in games that are tight like this, and everything that you do determines whether we win or lose.”
South Carolina finished with 20 turnovers, tied for its most in regulation this season. That led to LSU actually leading the Gamecocks on fast-break points, 15-11, despite normally being an area where USC excels.
“As far as the second half, I think our turnovers was what made the most difference for us,” Cooke said. “But we’re definitely going to go back to film, and we just had a very long conversation about what we’re going to do for the next game and just further in.”
3 OBSERVATIONS
1. Double bye?
With Sunday’s victory, the worst South Carolina can now finish in SEC play is 12-4 — only four other teams can finish with four or fewer losses, and the Gamecocks are guaranteed to hold the tiebreaker over one, Georgia. That ensures USC will secure a top-four finish in the league.
As of Sunday, the SEC tournament remains on, and assuming the format remains unchanged by COVID-19, that would give the Gamecocks a double-bye for the eighth consecutive season.
2. Big 3
Destanni Henderson, Zia Cooke and Aliyah Boston accounted for every single Gamecock point and assist in the first quarter, as well as 7 of 10 rebounds.
And even with Cooke and Boston sitting for most of the fourth quarter, that trio still accounted for two-thirds of USC’s points on the evening, as well as 90% of the assists and blocks, 78% of the field goals, 50% of the steals and 39% of the rebounds.
Henderson led the way scoring with 19 points, Boston posted her 10th double-double of the season with 12 points, 13 rebounds and six blocks, and Cooke tallied 13 points to go with a team-high four assists.
“I feel like we’re pretty comfortable with each other,” Henderson said of her relationship with her backcourt running mate Cooke. “Every day we’re just growing as players and learning each other’s likes and differences and how to feed each other the ball. I feel like we’re pretty comfortable out there. Just still growing and still learning.”
3. Who doesn’t love second chances?
South Carolina, one of the nation’s best offensive rebounding teams, hit the glass hard Sunday, pulling down 19 offensive boards. And the Gamecocks converted those extra chances into buckets, tallying 23 second-chance points compared to seven for LSU. That proved to be the difference in a game where the Tigers actually kept pace with the Gamecocks on points in the paint and off fast breaks, usually areas where Carolina dominates.
NEXT USC BASKETBALL GAME
Who: South Carolina (17-2, 12-0 SEC) vs. Tennessee (12-4, 6-2 SEC)
When: 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 18
Where: Thompson-Boling Arena, Knoxville, Tennessee
Watch: SEC Network
This story was originally published February 14, 2021 at 2:05 PM.
