In terms of overall results, this was just an average week in Columbia, South Carolina. Women won both fights and men lost a double.
The point is that you could argue that every outcome had a chance to change completely from victory to defeat or vice versa.
The men almost shocked the league with how they played Alabama. The Cocks started the game with a 16-3 run, but unsurprisingly, Crimson Tide managed to tie the game about four minutes later.
Things got tough for more or less the whole dispute, with USC reducing to a one point game with 8:25 left, but more importantly, this was a two point game with one minute to play.
South Carolina didn’t have one … not two … but three chances to tie the game, and they managed to score … a tray when the team needed three points. Unfortunately, with three seconds remaining, with no time limit and the length of the floor in front of them as a result of the stupid piece, that was all she wrote for that one.
The next one for the men was Ole Miss, and the rebels were doing everything in their power to lose this one.
After dominating the entire game, Ole Miss played as if her Space Jam-style talent had been sucked in for the past two and a half minutes.
South Carolina reduced the 13-point handicap in two minutes and switched to a seven-point handicap just a minute later.
A rebellious free throw later lost, Hannibal turns the tables.
After two rebellious free throws lost, Hannibal missed a shot.
A change from Ole Miss later, Hannibal and Lawson miss the shots.
Another day, another game to take away wasted.
If only this team had a closer …
***
As for the women, they continued to win after the UConn defeat, but those victories were not a reason for enthusiasm.
It took until the second half for Gamecocks to move away from a bad Missouri team. Yes, they managed to get revenge, but being tied for 20 minutes with a team of this caliber will not win you a championship.
Against LSU, South Carolina played like themselves for about three and a half quarters.
USC had a double-digit lead throughout the contest, but ended up experiencing a similar collapse to Ole Miss at the end, where a 12-point lead with two and the change evaporated to a five-point lead with 0: 28 for go.
If it weren’t for some clutch free throws from Eniya Russell, they might have made it back.
He didn’t love to see women lose focus like that.
***
Anyway, in a week when I could definitely have been happier with Gamecocks, I still have a few players left to acknowledge.
Player of the week: AJ Lawson
This may not have been accurate in previous weeks, but I really believe that Lawson is the best player on this team, and he finally started showing it (it only took a few years!).
He has lost 20 or more points in four of the last five games and is the guy his teammates look for when nothing is working.
In addition, he is the only player on the team who hit more than a three-point chance in a game last week …
This is a three-point shooter, and it looks like Lawson may be the only one who fits it.
Furthermore, while guys like Couisnard, Bryant and Hannibal saw the ball as if it were their own sport, Lawson learned to be productive while being smart with the ball.
He may not have had the toughest looks last week, he may not have hit the best percentage on the pitch, but I still feel that USC lives and dies at the hands of AJ Lawson – this week’s MVP and the team’s MVP.
Runner-up: Destanni Henderson
No one really surprised me on the women’s team this week (although it may just be the expectations they have), but I thought Henderson played better and was the most valuable.
In a game against Missouri, where the score was painfully close to the break, Henderson led the race to move away towards the end of the third period, scoring seven consecutive points in a two-minute period.
She also managed to collect four thefts on that one, who was shy of her best career.
In the LSU game, she added two more steals to her total, but it was another offensive game for her.
Henderson was the team’s top scorer with 19 points from 7 out of 12 shots. She even filmed her 3s in a 50% clip!
Her turnover was a little high and I would have preferred a little more ball movement, but overall, I thought Henderson played a week of quality basketball.
Honorable Mention: Wildens Leveque
Just to remember that this award does not always mean the third best player in my mind, but someone that I feel deserves a little love.
Leveque had a good week!
Although he flies a little off the radar, he ended up with a +/- 15 against Alabama, eight points more than the next best result. So, when he was on the ground, good things usually happened!
Then Leveque scored 13 points, the best of his career, hitting an impressive 6 out of 7 on the field, in the team’s defeat to Ole Miss.
Let’s see if he can improve this performance next week!