15-0! No. 1 South Carolina WBB battles past pesky Missouri for road SEC win
No. 1 South Carolina defeated Missouri 81-57 Thursday night at Mizzou Arena to remain undefeated. The victory also marked USC’s 65th consecutive regular season win. The program’s last loss came at Mizzou in 2021.
The Gamecocks (15-0, 3-0 SEC) employed their usual starting five: Te-Hina Paopao, Bree Hall, Raven Johnson, Kamilla Cardoso and Chloe Kitts. Hall finished with a career-high 21 points. Other South Carolina players in double digits included Paopao (15), Johnson (10), Ashlyn Watkins (10) and Sania Feagin (10).
“Just her maturity, her leadership — she’s leading on and off the court,” assistant coach Jolette Law said of Hall after the game. “She’s been putting in a lot of time.
“We always knew that she could score, but she’s coming into her own, shooting with a lot of confidence, and she’s also defending.”
USC played without freshman Sahnya Jah, who didn’t make the trip due to illness, per a team spokesperson. Missouri key playmaker Mama Dembele also didn’t play after suffering a knee injury Sunday against Alabama. She leads the Tigers with 105 assists and 52 steals.
The Gamecocks return home to host Kentucky at 7 p.m. Monday.
Bree Hall’s hot streak
Hall scored South Carolina’s first five points Thursday night at Mizzou Arena and ended the first half with 16 points — two shy of a career high. She sank her first six shots, including three 3-pointers, with one missed free throw as the lone blemish on her statline. Hall also got active on the defensive end, snagging three boards and blocking a shot in the first half.
“It’s funny because I was telling my teammates, ‘I’m live and deadly today!’ I’m like, ‘I’m live and deadly!’ ” Hall said in a postgame interview with SEC Network Plus. “But I just felt it today. I was really confident, and I just felt like the game came to me.”
She proved instrumental in getting USC started on offense after a scoreless minute-and-a-half in the first quarter and in her team’s 20-5 run to end the second quarter and retake the lead from Missouri.
Coach Dawn Staley spoke Sunday after her team’s 85-66 victory over Mississippi State about needing to get the ball in Hall’s hands more often.
In the Gamecocks’ previous nine games, Hall averaged 11.9 points on 63.3% shooting (61.8% from 3-point range). She finished Thursday night with a career-high 21 points, missing just two shots from the field.
“She’s in a groove,” Staley said. “She’s been playing extremely well on both sides of the basketball. What you’re seeing is a junior. She sat on the bench a lot her first two years, and then she has an opportunity to start and to play an integral role on our team.”
Battle for the boards
After struggling to out-rebound Mississippi State at home Sunday, South Carolina again had a hard time at Missouri dominating the boards as it usually does. (The Gamecocks average 16 more rebounds than their opponents per game, which ranks No. 4 in the nation.)
Both Mizzou and USC had 17 rebounds in the first half. The Gamecocks allowed the Tigers to grab six offensive rebounds.
South Carolina took more control in the second half, out-rebounding Mizzou 20 to 13.
Defensive highs and lows
Heading into Thursday night’s game, South Carolina had the No. 8 scoring defense in the country, limiting opponents to 52.1 points per game.
The Gamecocks showed some hustle on that end of the court against Missouri, forcing three shot-clock violations in the first half. But USC’s defense also struggled, allowing Mizzou to go on some key runs. The lead changed eight times, the second most in a South Carolina game this season behind USC’s home opener versus Maryland (12).
The Tigers also made 10 3-pointers (on 40% shooting from beyond the arc) en route to their 57 total points. They cut the Gamecocks’ lead to five points in the third quarter.
Next four South Carolina WBB games:
This story was originally published January 11, 2024 at 9:53 PM.
