| Herald-Journal
GREENVILLE – South Carolina runner-up opened the game at the SEC’s Women’s Basketball Tournament with a 75-63 win on Friday night against Alabama’s seventh bracket at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena. Here are five lessons from the victory that allowed defending champion Gamecocks to advance to face No. 3 Tennessee at 6:30 pm in Saturday’s semifinals.
The first division of Texas A&M and the fourth placed Georgia appear at 16:00 in the other semifinal, with both games broadcast by ESPNU. Sunday’s championship game is at 2 pm on ESPN2.
USC played hard until late after Alabama put a good scare on Gamecocks
After building great leadership early in the game, it always seemed that Gamecocks would succeed in keeping the Crimson Tide at bay and would never truly allow Alabama to become a major threat.
That was until the USC’s unique 27-point lead was reduced to just seven with 5:08 remaining and suddenly the result was in doubt. With possession of the offensive ball by the USC, Victaria Saxton gave a great offensive rebound and took the ball to Zia Cooke, who hit Destanni Henderson for a 3-point basket, the biggest shot of the night that increased the advantage to 10.
“It was definitely a change of moment and it was flowing,” said Cooke. “I knew she would be there ready for the shot and I went to make another pass and it was there.”
The defense of the USC was also an important factor in the final stretch, holding Alabama without a field goal and with just four points in the last 5:08.
“The adjustment was that we got smaller,” said coach Dawn Staley. “We put Lele (Grissett) in the game because we could change a lot more and a lot better with that match. I think I was really proud of our ability to defend Jasmine Walker (third in the SEC with 20 points per game), just keep it at a rate inefficient. I thought we showed up and wanted to win, and our tentacles went up when they got close. “
Walker finished with just nine points out of 4 out of 12 shots.
An extremely fast and efficient offensive start was a game saver for USC
Staley had promised anyone who was listening earlier in the week that they would see an offensive team very different from the one he struggled to produce during a 4-3 final in the regular season.
The Gamecocks led 26-6 after the first quarter, after hitting 10 of 14 shots (75 percent) and 3 of 4 in the 3-point range. Alabama had twice as many losses in the first quarter (six) than it scored on the field (3 of 13). Only once in their seven previous games did Gamecocks reach 20 points in the first quarter.
Even after Crimson Tide overcame the USC in each of the final three quarters and made it competitive in the end, Staley said, “We are going to make the best of it and our attack has been boosted and I hope it will continue throughout the tournament. I am happy because we found our attack to reach an advantage that we just kept to win the game. We live to see another day and it’s a dog fight winning in our league. “
Staley’s main desire for offensive improvement when entering the game was to increase the movement of the ball and she was satisfied with what she saw.
“We made a concerted effort. I don’t think there was a time when we didn’t have a ball reversal and, if we didn’t, Aliyah Boston touched the ball in the blocks. We were deliberate on what we were trying to accomplish. If you look at the percentage of shooting of our guards, it was great. (Cooke and Henderson) haven’t shot 50 percent together in a long time. “
Cooke and Henderson threw a combined total of 16 to 27, went 5 out of 7 on 3-point attempts and totaled 40 points.
USC received a much-needed high-score night from Cooke
The second guard’s 22 points were his fifth game of 20 points this season, the third highest score and the second highest against SEC competition. She shot 9 to 17 overall and 2 to 4 long distance, playing a 37-minute time-high.
“I think my teammates made me feel that,” said Cooke. “Just watching them take down and seeing us all doing well as a unit. It’s better when everyone eats, so this is something we try to keep doing, move the ball and make sure everyone is happy and, of course, get the win . “
On the very hot start to the game, she added: “It was good and we were smiling all the time. It’s good when you can play like this and have good things going on. We were making sure we were stuck with listening to the coach and paying attention to the details and everything we were doing in practice, we translated into the game. “
Gamecocks need to play with a wicked sequence to achieve their main goals
Staley witnessed a satisfying game at both ends of the court over the course of the win, but one thing that doesn’t show up in the statistics is the toughness she felt her team showed.
That was at the very least for a team that Staley acknowledged to be full of friendly student-athletes who don’t always bring the level of intensity brought on by one of last year’s veterans – striker Mikiah Herbert Harrigan, who earned the nickname “Mad Kiki “for his aggressive style of play.
“Our team is very good and we need to find out how to continue to be unpleasant and maintain energy,” said Staley. “Because I had to tell them over a period of time that a good team is not going to win a national championship or a SEC championship, so we have to find some courage. I thought that sometimes during the game we had a lot of plays that we didn’t make over from season to high ball situations, 50-50 balls and all those intangibles that were missing.
“I hope it will continue and we will continue to try to see it when we analyze the film and if they see it, they can recreate it. It will not always look good and I kind of like to mess it up a little bit, especially defensively at this time of year.”
So how did a 27-point lead drop to just seven at the end of the game?
“We have to get engaged,” said Staley. “This time we want to get 40 minutes stuck, that’s our plan from the beginning to the end of the game. It’s a very disputed game and at this point we just have to figure out how to make more moves than the other. The defense was something that we hung our hat on (at the beginning of this season), but we had to hang our hat on the attack tonight and it appeared in at least two of the four quarters.
“It wasn’t a lack of effort, for sure. They are there trying to do what we asked of them. I don’t think we took our foot off the accelerator. It is the shots that are falling on us the first 15 minutes of the game were not falling for us. we had lost lay-ups, entered the transition and turned the ball over, we had some empty belongings.
“When you build a 27-point lead, I think it’s fun basketball at that point, but it can’t be a lot of fun when you’re trying new things. We have to keep doing things that work for us.”