No. 2 South Carolina WBB battles past No. 19 Alabama for road SEC victory
The No. 2 South Carolina women’s basketball team added another ranked victory to its resume on Thursday night with a 76-58 win over No. 19 Alabama.
Dawn Staley and the Gamecocks improve to 17-1 on the year with the result and maintain a perfect 5-0 record in SEC play.
South Carolina led for all but 1:40 in the game, and typically led by about 10 points for most of the night, but it never felt like Alabama was completely out of it.
“I thought (Alabama) did a good job of just controlling tempo. I thought we played at their pace and and they stuck around ‘till the end of the game and made it a two possession game. I mean, what we weren’t doing was executing. They made it hard for us to catch. We weren’t getting open. So they disrupted our the flow of our offense and we got to get better.”
Here are three quick observations from South Carolina’s 23rd straight win over Alabama.
South Carolina’s top scorers lead the way
The Gamecocks have been led by Joyce Edwards, Te-Hina Paopao, MiLaysia Fulwiley and Chloe Kitts (in that order) in scoring all year. Thursday night was no different.
All four players finished with double-digit marks in the scoring column against Alabama and combined for 58 of South Carolina’s 76 points on the night.
Freshman Joyce Edwards had yet another great night in the scoring column for the Gamecocks. She finished with a career-high 21 points on 7 of 10 shooting. It’s the sixth time this season she’s led the team in scoring.
Fulwiley was right behind Edwards with 16 points. Paopao followed with 11 points and Kitts finished with 10 points and 13 rebounds, marking her fifth double-double of the season.
Strong start makes the difference again
South Carolina scored 20 or more points in the first quarter for the ninth time this season on Thursday.
The Gamecocks outscored Alabama 21-12 in the first quarter and outshot the Crimson Tide 47% to 27% in the period.
Although Alabama cut the lead to four at one point in the second quarter, the strong start gave South Carolina enough of a cushion to keep a comfortable lead most of the night. Especially after Alabama outscored South Carolina 18-17 in the second quarter and 18-16 in the third quarter.
“It’s crucial for us to get off to quick starts, because that’s something that we haven’t done consistently all season long,” Staley said. “It helps us. I mean, we needed the cushion. We needed the cushion in order for us to just hold on to the lead and hold on to some momentum, even though it was slipping away from us. But the cushion was good for us. We’re usually a better second quarter team than we that we played today, but that was attributed to how (Alabama) played us.”
Alabama limited from beyond the arc
The Crimson Tide has been one of the best teams in the country from 3-point range all year, but they struggled for a majority of the game.
Alabama entered the game No. 10 in the country with a 38% shoot clip from 3-point range but shot just 18.2% against South Carolina. The Crimson Tide, who averaged 8.8 makes from long range a game, was just 4 for 22 on the night.
Aaliyah Nye, Alabama’s best 3-point shooter, made just one of her seven 3-point attempts Thursday.
South Carolina schedule: Next four games
- Jan. 19: vs. Oklahoma, 3 p.m. (ESPN)
- Jan. 23: vs. LSU, 8 p.m. (ESPN)
- Jan. 27: at Tennessee, 7 p.m. (ESPN2)
- Feb. 2: vs. Auburn, Noon (SEC Network)
This story was originally published January 16, 2025 at 8:50 PM.
