No. 1 South Carolina continues mastery of SEC with another conference sweep
The South Carolina women’s basketball team took turns climbing the ladder and cutting down the net inside Bon Secours Wellness Arena on Sunday — something that’s become a tradition for Dawn Staley’s teams.
Blue and yellow confetti fell in the Gamecocks’ favor after a 74-58 win for the SEC tournament title. Family members of the winning USC athletes greeted them on the court and on the larges stage set up inside the arena.
The Gamecocks took turns taking pictures with the championship trophy. The tournament’s MVP, Aliyah Boston, took selfies with as many fans as she could.
But Sunday’s win wasn’t just the cause of a celebration — it was the fulfillment of an expectation.
Under Staley, who took over in 2008, South Carolina has completed three perfect runs through the SEC schedule. All of those featured a 16-0 regular-season finish and conference tournament championship.
USC has also won three out of four SEC tournament championships with its 2019 recruiting class, and all four regular-season titles.
“There’s a standard we had prior to them coming, and it was a high standard,” Staley said. “But when that class came on campus, they took our standard to another level.”
South Carolina holds the spot as the SEC’s dominant team. Tennessee held that distinction for years under Pat Summitt, with 16 SEC regular-season championships and eight national titles under her watch.
The Gamecocks have been a national power for nearly a decade now, and that begins with their mastery of conference play.
“Everybody who’s in this conference wants to punk you,” Boston said. “When they step on the floor, the goal is, ‘Let’s punk them. ‘And for us, it’s like, ‘Don’t get punked.’ ”
The SEC is noted for its physical style of play and tendency for teams to play through the post. But it has also featured successful coaches and a strong representation of teams in the NCAA tournament fields.
Since 2019, South Carolina is 61-3 in conference play, with an additional 11 wins in the SEC tournament.
“I’m just glad we were able to close it out this way, especially with our ‘Freshies’ group,” senior guard Brea Beal said. “It’s kind of a surreal feeling. It’s our third one.”
The conference only had two ranked teams for most of the 2022-23 season — South Carolina and LSU. When the then-undefeated Tigers came to Columbia, USC beat them by 24.
USC mostly rolled through the league, with just two SEC games being decided by 10 points or fewer. Other teams managed to get early leads or keep it close for a few quarters, but the Gamecocks’ depth and experience provided an edge.
Seven teams from the conference are projected to make this year’s NCAA tournament.
“The SEC is extremely fun,” senior guard Zia Cooke said. “We’ve played a lot of good teams throughout this way. And I feel like we deserve everything that has come our way. To be 32-0 at this point, it’s unreal. It’s unheard of, in my opinion.”
Redshirt-freshman guard Raven Johnson wasn’t available to play in last year’s SEC tournament due to an injury, but she remembered seeing the disappointment her teammates had after coming up short against Kentucky.
Johnson started at point guard in place of the injured Kierra Fletcher on Sunday. And her goal was to send the senior class off with a third tournament title.
“They deserve everything,” Johnson said. “The time they put in the gym, the way they talk to us younger players, it’s amazing.”
The Gamecocks are one of six SEC schools to win the regular season and tournament championships in the same season, doing so five times.
South Carolina took a step forward as a program winning its first national championship in 2017, and made an even bigger leap with last year’s title run. Now, the SEC champions will chase another trophy.
The bar for success is set for Staley’s Gamecocks, and the veterans want to keep lifting it.
“It feels good, especially leading the young ones, showing them what they could get for next year or the year after that,” Beal said.
This story was originally published March 6, 2023 at 9:04 AM.
