Several years ago, the state of Mississippi and South Carolina were fighting for relevance in women’s basketball at the SEC.
The Gamecocks hired great women’s basketball Dawn Staley in 2008, after a series of years in which the team was hovering at WNIT. Staley inherited a team of 16 victories and had consecutive seasons with a history of defeats. In year six, Staley won the SEC Championship and won five of them since the regular season with two Final Fours and a National Champion.
The Bulldogs hired Vic Schaefer in 2012 and the team had only been on a Sweet 16 in the show’s history. He led the MSU in two SEC championships, five consecutive appearances in the SEC tournament title and two appearances in the national championship.
This means that both Bulldogs and Gamecocks have ruled the SEC over the past seven years, although South Carolina has a 12-3 record against MSU since 2013 with a national championship game win and a 4- record 0 in the SEC Tournament Championship.
MSU’s new coach, Nikki McCray-Penson, was in the middle of the program being built by Staley as one of his assistants and she is on the other side of the rivalry. On Thursday, she will be wearing brown and white for the first time, competing against her longtime friend and mentor.
“There is history there. This is a game that has become a rivalry game and both teams have competed in the championships for the past five years, ”said McCray-Penson. “We want to be able to execute the game plan. Every time we enter the field, we are trying to win games and improve. It’s about us. We are still learning our offensive and defensive systems, but we definitely have a talented team and are excited to compete against South Carolina. ”
MSU (8-4, 3-3 SEC) is in the middle of a rough stretch on the court. Bulldogs dropped from the top 10 ranking in the pre-season to 21st place and are in danger of falling from the top 25 for the first time in years.
It would be necessary to return to Schaefer’s second season at MSU in 2014 to find out the last time the Bulldogs lost three consecutive games, but that is what is at risk of happening on Thursday night. After struggling to defeat Ole Miss on January 10, MSU exploded a double-digit lead against Alabama and lost 86-78 and went on with his worst offensive performance since 2016 in a 69-41 defeat against Texas A&M.
Due to changes in the COVID-19 schedule, Bulldogs were left without action in the game for 11 days. McCray-Penson said the team took that time to really hammer into the little details that have plagued them this year.
“It has been good for us and has allowed us to rest and recover a little bit and we are also trying to stay in shape,” said McCray-Penson. “You go back to the basics. The basics is where it all starts with us and it’s really just making a decision to do these things. Defense and recovery are essential for us. The attack is efficiency and flow, so we need to understand our selection of kicks. You cannot win games if you do not consistently score the ball or rebound. “
Getting rebounds will be the most difficult challenge for Bulldogs on Thursday night as they will receive one of the best rebounds for college basketball in Aliyah Boston. She is following a great freshman season with 14.8 points per game and 11.3 rebounds and is adding 41 blocks in the year.
Boston has been a big reason why Gamecocks are fourth in the country and 12-1 in the year, with a 7-0 start to the championship, as they are looking for yet another conference championship. It is not as dominant a team as last season, when Carolina finished the year in the first place in the country, but the second group of Zia Cooke, Boston and Brea Beal are a weight together with Destanni Henderson.
It’s a game where Bulldogs need the junior center Jessika Carter to take a step forward. In two games against Boston last year and USC, Carter had just seven points in total and tried just one shot the first time the two teams met. McCray-Penson believes Carter will be ready to enter this game, trying to improve his 15.6 points and 9.2 rebounds per game.
“We got the ball for Jess now and it’s all about positioning. She has to be very aggressive in office. She has to hold on, ”said McCray-Penson. “She has to be physically with (Boston) without getting dirty. For Jess, it’s staying in the moment and not letting things affect you.
The game time on Thursday night is 6 pm and will be broadcast on ESPN. Although the atmosphere is not like in the last two games between the two teams at the Humphrey Coliseum, the few fans allowed to wear white.