South Carolina to face UK in SEC women’s tournament finals. What to know, how to watch
Top-ranked South Carolina women’s basketball locked in its trip to the 2022 SEC women’s basketball tournament championship game after claiming a 61-51 semifinal win Saturday over No. 4-seed Ole Miss.
But the general mood around the Gamecocks’ program Saturday showed more disappointment about an underwhelming fourth-quarter performance than one would expect after a conference semifinals victory.
“Obviously, we don’t like to play bad basketball,” head coach Dawn Staley said. “Bad basketball puts you in a bad mood. We’ve got to figure it out, and we’re going to figure it out. I know we’re not going to play this bad (Sunday). We’re going to figure out a combination that will get us to play the kind of basketball we need to play to secure another SEC tournament championship.”
Ole Miss outscored South Carolina 21-8 in the last period and chipped a 23-point South Carolina lead down to eight with less than two minutes left in the game.
South Carolina held on for the win, but it didn’t come without hiccups. The Gamecocks committed eight turnovers in the game’s final 10 minutes, allowing Ole Miss to score seven points off their miscues.
USC committed 22 total turnovers against Ole Miss, tying the team’s season-high.
South Carolina’s turnover problem has been an up-and-down issue throughout the season, with everything from burpees in practice to an added emphasis on decision-making playing roles in improving ball security.
For the SEC tournament championship, Staley said the focus will be on evaluating film to figure out how to make better choices with the basketball.
“We just have to point (the turnovers) out,” Staley said. “We’ve got to look at it. ... It’s a decision. Our turnovers were bad decisions. We have to be better as a collective group. I’ve got to be better with making sure we’ve got the right lineup out there, and we just lost the momentum.”
2022 SEC women’s basketball tournament championship game preview
No. 1 seed South Carolina will face No. 7 Kentucky in the tournament championship game Saturday.
The Gamecocks hold a 2-0 record over Kentucky in the 2021-22 regular season, defeating the Wildcats 74-54 on Jan. 9 in Columbia and 59-50 on Feb. 10 in Lexington.
Kentucky, which was rattled by injuries on its way to an 8-8 record in conference play, ended regular-season SEC competition on a six-game win streak before its tournament championship run.
The Wildcats defeated No. 10 Mississippi State, No. 2 LSU and No. 3 Tennessee on their way to a berth in Sunday’s game, with star Rhyne Howard scoring 14, 32 and 24 points each game respectively.
Watch South Carolina Sunday in SEC Tournament
Who: No. 1 seed South Carolina Gamecocks (29-1) vs. No. 7 Kentucky Wildcats (18-11)
When: 2 p.m. Saturday
Where: Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee
Watch: ESPN — stream via ESPN app
This story was originally published March 5, 2022 at 9:27 PM.
