Far from home: How South Carolina WBB is handling the long road trip
The South Carolina women’s basketball team hasn’t spent much time this season in Columbia.
The team is in the midst of a four-game road stretch, playing the last of those games on Tuesday.
USC (4-0) played at Colonial Life Arena for its first game on Nov. 7 knowing that it would go 20 days before its next home game. Head coach Dawn Staley discussed the road trip with the team before it began and told them how to best prepare.
“In order for them to perform at a peak level, it starts with resting and hydrating and taking this thing a little bit more serious until you’re in the middle of it,” Staley said after the home opener. “Once you’re in the middle of it, you’re fighting, clawing if you didn’t do what you needed to do a week and a half before.”
With one more game to go in this four-game road trip — an 8 p.m. meeting today with Cal Poly (ESPN+) — the Gamecocks have fared quite well. They started the trip with an 81-56 victory Nov. 11 at then No. 17 Maryland.
The team played a bit closer to home last week when it battled Clemson in Littlejohn Coliseum, dominating the Tigers 85-31 and taking the lead in the all-time series.
In what’s been the biggest game of the women’s college basketball season so far, the squad played in front of a sold-out crowd Sunday at Maples Pavilion where it beat Stanford 76-71 in overtime.
USC is full of veteran players who have had extended road trips before, whether in the regular season or in the NCAA tournament.
Seniors Brea Beal and Victaria Saxton cited the importance of maintaining healthy habits as a way to stay engaged during the current road trip.
“Everybody’s hydrating because all road trips are important and they drain your body,” Saxton said.
Beal added that part of her routine is to limit her social media intake and go to bed at a reasonable hour.
“I think just practicing continuous habits, having the same habits every gameday or leading up to the game,” Beal said. “I think that puts you on track to have a solid game.”
South Carolina’s gone 31-4 on the road since the 2019-20 season. The Gamecocks have had two undefeated seasons on the road since Staley took over in 2008.
It won’t have any more than two consecutive road games for the rest of the season, but the travel will ramp up during conference play. USC will go back and forth from state to state with some games at Colonial Life Arena mixed in.
Senior guard Zia Cooke — who is leading the team in scoring with 15.8 points per game — said she’s looked for ways to stay locked in since her freshman season, and she relayed that message to the younger players on the team.
“Just come up with something that you do, like a ritual,” Cooke said after the Maryland game. “What are the things that you want to do on the floor or before the game to get yourself ready?”
NEXT FOUR SOUTH CAROLINA WBB GAMES
- Tonight: at Cal Poly, 8 p.m. (ESPN+)
- Sunday: home vs. Hampton, noon (SEC Network Plus)
- Nov. 29: home vs. UCLA, 7 p.m. (SEC Network)
- Dec. 3: home vs. Memphis, 3 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)
