South Carolina’s Coates looking for more against Hampton

Encore or opportunity?

Both.

A’ja Wilson is likely to miss her second straight game Wednesday when second-ranked South Carolina hosts Hampton, which clears the way for center Alaina Coates to have a second straight stellar game.

Coates had a triple-double against Winthrop on Sunday, USC’s first since 2006, and set a school record with 10 blocks.

While a triple-double may not be realistic every game, Coates being dominant is. Without sharing the ball with Wilson, Coates can get similar numbers to the 29 points she posted, which at least puts the possibility of another dominating effort into play.

Without Wilson, Coates and the Gamecocks can start working their other post players into the mix. The more production they get now, the less growing pains they’ll experience when they really need to play well.

“A’ja’s my partner,” Coates said on Tuesday. “Me and Sarah (Imovbioh), we’re learning each other, so we’re kind of at the stages of trying not to get in each other’s way.

“We’ve all told her, ‘You’re built like an ox, we need you to move people.’ She finally got her confidence to where she can be like us, make moves and go hard to the basket.”

Imovbioh has been the expected strong rebounder, but her offense continues to develop. As a center at Virginia, Imovbioh relied mostly on put-backs. With the Gamecocks, she can develop more of a back-to-the-basket game.

“We need to get her playing a lot better than what she’s playing, just confidence-wise,” coach Dawn Staley said. “She’s used to playing 30 minutes. If we gave her 30 minutes, she could have the same type of performances she had at Virginia. So she’s adjusting to the role she’ll have to play for our team.”

The Gamecocks like to rely on their post game, and if Wilson, Coates, Imovbioh and Jatarie White can prove to be close to unstoppable on the block, it takes pressure off USC’s guards and set up how the Gamecocks prefer to play – on both sides of the ball..

Even with Wilson nursing shin splints, USC can rule the interior. Coates showed it against Winthrop and hopes to avoid any more stretches of sluggish play.

“Alaina knows exactly the level she needs to play at every time she steps on the floor,” Staley said. “She’s probably caught in between just having a lot of weapons. You have a tendency to kind of drift a little bit.”

This story was originally published December 15, 2015 at 5:35 PM.