No. 2 South Carolina WBB overcomes slow start, beats Charleston Southern: 3 observations
How’s that for a Thursday noon tip-off?
It wasn’t the prettiest basketball, but No. 2 South Carolina shrugged off a slow start and powered past Charleston Southern, 82-46, at Colonial Life Arena.
“Charleston Southern was a good team that challenged us,” USC head coach Dawn Staley said. “And we didn’t do a really good job throughout the game, especially in the first half.”
The Gamecocks got off to a crawl — both teams shot under 20% in the first five minutes — and Charleston Southern (4-9) took advantage of USC’s stumbles to go on a 9-0 run. By the time the first quarter ended, South Carolina was down 15-11. That’s not something you see every day.
But then came the second quarter, and the Gamecocks woke up like a student realizing their term paper was due in an hour. They outscored CSU 23-11 in the frame to take a 34-26 lead at halftime.
After the slow start, Staley wrote a question mark on the board during halftime — signifying the amount of questions the Gamecocks’ performance in the first half left her with.
“They force us to question their ability to lock in and be disciplined,” Staley said. “They force us to have questions about who should play, who shouldn’t play, all of these things.”
After a third quarter that felt like a tug-of-war, USC answered some of those questions as it went on a game-sealing 37-6 run spanning the third and fourth quarters to pull away for the win.
At halftime, the team reflected on their performance before Staley even came in, freshman Joyce Edwards said. Fellow freshman Maddy McDaniel added that USC was one game away from Christmas break and was playing a team the Gamecocks believed they should’ve defeated handily. That perspective led to the slower start.
“We have to put it on ourselves and not look at the competition,” McDaniel said.
Charleston Southern, which hasn’t had a winning season in eight years, fell to the Gamecocks for the fourth time in the Staley era, with previous margins of victory of 22, 70 and 64 points.
South Carolina (11-1) now gets a 10-day breather before hosting Wofford on Dec. 29. Southeastern Conference play begins a few days later on Jan. 2 against Missouri.
Here are three observations from Thursday’s win:
About the slow starts
South Carolina was able to start quicker in games recently, but that changed Thursday. The Gamecocks’ first-quarter shooting (14.3%), coupled with a surge of energy from CSU, resulted in the USC being down after the first quarter for the first time in almost a month.
“Sometimes it’s a focus thing,” Staley said. “Sometimes you don’t want to play the way that probably your coaches think you’re going to play. And it has an adverse effect.”
McDaniel gave the Gamecocks a much-needed boost off the bench, scoring five points and two assists in the first half to spark the struggling USC offense.
All the turnovers
It was evident early that South Carolina’s stingy defense would be hard for Charleston Southern to overcome. The Gamecocks forced two turnovers in the first two minutes of the game just by smothering ball handlers. They forced 23 turnovers. The Gamecocks had 10 turnovers of their own.
USC’s defense held the Buccaneers to 0-of-5 shooting to start the game. But CSU bounced back to close the first quarter, making seven of their last nine shots in the frame. USC’s defense stepped up from there, holding Charleston to 33.3% across the first half as a whole.
All hands on deck
It was a balanced scoring effort for the Gamecocks in the first half. Eight USC players scored before the break with six of them having between four and six points.
Edwards set a career high for the second-straight game with 20 points, seven rebounds and two steals. Junior Ashlyn Watkins also had eight points, eight rebounds and three blocks. Senior Sania Feagin also had eight points and six rebounds.
Nine Gamecocks had at least six points, and the bench scored 50 points.
Next four games
- Dec. 29: vs. Wofford, 2 p.m. (SEC Network)
- Jan. 2: at Missouri, 7 p.m. (SEC Network)
- Jan. 5: at Mississippi State, 2 p.m. (SEC Network)
- Jan. 9: vs Texas A&M, 5 p.m. (ESPN2)
This story was originally published December 19, 2024 at 1:44 PM.
