No. 1 South Carolina battles back to fend off Georgia challenge. What we learned
No. 1 South Carolina started the new year with a road victory.
The Gamecocks came away with a 68-51 victory against Georgia on Monday in their first game of 2023.
Georgia (11-5, 0-2 SEC) held South Carolina (14-0, 2-0 SEC) to 11 first-quarter points, tied for the Gamecocks’ lowest opening point total of the season. The Bulldogs led for 19 minutes and seven seconds in the first half and entered the break at Stegeman Coliseum with a 29-26 lead.
Brea Beal gave the Gamecocks their first lead of the game with a 3-pointer in the third quarter, and Kierra Fletcher extended that lead to four with a layup the next trip down. Beal knocked down another shot from distance late in the third quarter to give USC a seven-point lead going into the final frame.
South Carolina extended the lead to double digits in the fourth after a pair of free throws from Zia Cooke, and the team held on for the rest of the quarter to win the game.
USC will face Auburn at home on Thursday at 7 p.m.
ZIA COOKS FOR GAMECOCKS
South Carolina leaned on its leading scorer once again Monday.
In a game in which points weren’t easy to come by, Cooke shouldered the offensive load for USC. She finished with a career-high 31 points, with her most impressive two points coming on a third-quarter layup she flipped in while getting fouled.
Cooke became the first USC player to score 30 or more points in a game since Te’a Cooper did so in 2018.
“Coach (Dawn Staley) kept telling me to keep shooting my shot,” Cooke said. “There were times I wanted to stop shooting, but she just told me to keep shooting, so I listened to her.”
Cooke entered the game averaging 14.1 points per game, and she now accounts for South Carolina’s only two 20-point performances this year.
She remained aggressive with her shot throughout the game. She shot 3-of-11 in the first half, but got into a groove in the second. Cooke also scored 11 points from the free throw line.
UGA’S STOUT DEFENSE
South Carolina has dominated in the paint all season, and Georgia fortified its interior defense during Monday’s game.
UGA made scoring inside difficult for South Carolina, holding it to 5-of-12 shooting on layup attempts in the first half. The team particularly hounded Aliyah Boston and Kamilla Cardoso, the Gamecocks’ best post scorers.
The Bulldogs have been one of the SEC’s best defensive teams this season, forcing opponents into 20.5 turnovers per game entering Monday. The Gamecocks ended with 18 giveaways, 10 coming in the first half.
“I thought they were just scrapping it,” Staley said. “They got all the loose balls, all the 50-50 balls. But I thought we just had to weather the storm.”
Staley told the team at halftime that it needed to make more of its layups, and acknowledged that Georgia was giving USC its “best shot” as most teams do. The crowd in Stegeman Coliseum was active while UGA kept the lead for most of the game, and even as it started to slip in the fourth quarter.
But South Carolina shored up its play in the second half, outscoring Georgia 42-22 and getting 18 points in the paint.
“Halftime usually does it,” Staley said. “We recalibrate, we figure out what it is we want to do and hone in on that.”
MORE EFFECTIVE FROM THE FOUL LINE
South Carolina managed to hang around in the first half partially because of its efficiency from the free throw line.
The team went a perfect 8-for-8 from the charity stripe in the first 20 minutes. USC has struggled with its free throws this year, shooting 65.4% entering the game.
USC shot just 8-of-28 from the field in the first half, and the free throws it converted on kept the deficit at just three points.
The Gamecocks ultimately shot 17-23, and made 9 of their 11 attempts from the line in the fourth quarter to put the game away.
“That’s the time we need to be really good,” Staley said of the second-half free throws.
NEXT FOUR SOUTH CAROLINA WBB GAMES
Thursday: home vs. Auburn, 7 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)
Sunday: at Mississippi State, 1 p.m. (SEC Network or ESPN2)
Jan. 12: at Kentucky, 7 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)
Jan. 15: home vs. Missouri, 1 p.m. (SEC Network or ESPN2)
This story was originally published January 2, 2023 at 8:57 PM.
