Bring the noise: South Carolina’s sellout crowd an enthusiastic ally in rout of LSU
South Carolina senior guard Zia Cooke addressed the team after practice Saturday, one day before the No. 1 Gamecocks matched up at home against the No. 3 LSU Tigers.
Both squads hadn’t lost a game all season, drawing much media attention and fanfare to a sold-out game that preceded Super Bowl LVII.
With all that in mind, Cooke’s message was about remaining focused on the team’s mission: staying unbeaten in the SEC.
“She was like, ‘This is a big game, but let’s not change up who we are,’ ” senior forward Aliyah Boston said. “ ‘Let’s continue to play team basketball.’ ”
South Carolina (25-0, 12-0 SEC) accomplished its goal with an 88-64 win against LSU, which saw five Gamecocks score 10 or more points. And as important as physical defense and paint points were to the game plan, crowd noise played a big role in USC’s victory.
Fans were relentless on each turnover, missed shot and foul that LSU picked up in the first quarter.
“The worst thing you can do on the road is to allow the home team to start from the tip, and we did,” Tigers coach Kim Mulkey said. “The tone for the whole game was set on the jump ball.”
The Gamecocks won that jump ball and Cooke scored a layup 3 seconds in the game. USC fed off the “energy in the building” and quickly built and 18-2 lead.
Tigers forward Angel Reese entered the game as a candidate for National Player of the Year, and USC fans didn’t hold back with each mistake she made. She ended the game with 16 points on 5-of-15 shooting.
South Carolina fans distributed boos toward LSU from the depths of their lungs — offering their best efforts for Mulkey in the pregame introductions. And though the Tigers weren’t without their own fans, they couldn’t keep up with the garnet and black that spread across the arena.
Despite the noise, LSU managed to hang around in the first half. The Tigers cut the lead to three points by the second quarter when fifth-year senior guard Alexis Morris got on a roll offensively.
“We knew from the beginning it wasn’t gonna be a one-quarter game,” Staley said. “Over the course of 40 minutes, I just thought our depth really paid big dividends in this game.”
As South Carolina started to get going, the crowd followed suit. A 10-point halftime lead became a 16-point advantage after a Brea Beal 3-pointer closed out the third quarter.
South Carolina never trailed, blemishing LSU’s perfect record (23-1, 11-1) with a 24-point win.
The Gamecocks boast eight sellouts in program history. They’ve sold out at least one home game a year since 2016, excluding the 2020-21 season that saw reduced capacity because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
USC has also led the nation in fan attendance for eight straight seasons. This year, they’ve recorded an attendance of at least 11,500 against SEC opponents, and the non-conference game against then-No. 15 UCLA brought in 12,501.
Gone are the days of a hollow Colonial Life Arena that accompanied Staley’s Gamecocks in 2008.
“I just wanted to win,” Staley said of her mindset when she arrived at South Carolina. “I wanted to put a product on the floor that people could be proud of.”
“They did it, our ‘FAMs’ did it.”
Boston remembers playing in her first home sellout game against UConn in 2020, a novelty for her at the time.
Three years later, she comes to expect them.
“I was very nervous,” Boston said. “I was like, ‘Oh gosh, there’s a lot of people.’ But now, I just think about it, it’s like a regular.”
USC WBB SELLOUTS (18,000)
- Feb. 12, 2023 vs. LSU
- Feb. 20, 2022 vs. Tennessee
- March 1, 2020 vs. Texas A&M
- Feb. 10, 2020 vs. UConn
- March 3, 2019 vs. Mississippi State
- Feb. 1, 2018 vs. UConn
- Feb. 26, 2017 vs. Kentucky
- Feb. 8, 2016 vs. UConn
This story was originally published February 13, 2023 at 9:35 AM.
