Gamecocks want to stick to gameplan against UNC Greensboro

Khadijah Sessions saw the early openings and took advantage. The cat-quick guard was slicing Ohio State’s defense into Thanksgiving-ready strips, spurring South Carolina to a 25-10 first-quarter lead.

Dawn Staley didn’t mind, per se. The lanes were there and Sessions, a senior, was doing what a good point guard should. She was taking what the defense gave her, and it was working.

Later in the game, after the Buckeyes had weathered the Gamecocks’ early surge and clawed back to take the lead, Staley was kicking herself for not telling Sessions to slow down.

No harm, no foul, since the Gamecocks won. But it was a teaching point.

“I’d like to go inside a lot more than we did, especially in the first half,” Staley said. “Sometimes when your point guard sees something on the floor, which Khadijah did, she used her speed to get some baskets. You have a tendency to get out of the flow of executing the gameplan, and that’s what happened. And then we got stagnant.”

Ohio State spread its defense to deny Sessions her looks, and as she tried to weave from side-to-side above the key, the Buckeyes were on her. At one point, USC missed 13 straight from the field.

“I came out looking to push it in transition,” Sessions said. “Coach has been talking fast-pace. I was just looking to attack.”

In the second half, she began distributing. The Gamecocks wanted to go to their bread and butter – height. Ohio State couldn’t stop Alaina Coates and A’ja Wilson, and on the off chance those two couldn’t get it done, there was always Tiffany Mitchell.

Coates, Wilson and Sarah Imovbioh scored the Gamecocks’ final 10 field goals. Sessions had a couple more crucial possessions in there, but it was mostly the big girls’ show.

There was no blame for the early success, but Sessions realized one more chore to perform every night: Perform the gameplan while still keeping an eye on how to open up the floor.

“I just let the game come to me,” Sessions said. “Last year I wasn’t big on scoring, but this year, I got a different mindset. I got to do whatever it takes to help the team.”

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