After dropping its first two games of the season, the women's basketball team only needed one week to turn the season in the right direction. The Gamecocks posted their first victory of the year against Davidson last Monday and then traveled to Cancun, Mexico, for the Cancun Thanksgiving Classic. There South Carolina defeated Ohio before claiming the title in a nail-biter against UNC-Wilmington.
South Carolina (3-2) got the three-game swing started off at the Colonial Life Arena against the Davidson Wildcats with a 68-47 victory Monday. The Gamecocks defense stepped up holding Davidson to only 30.2 percent shooting.
After building a 20-point lead, USC saw the Wildcats cut their lead in half with about six minutes left to play. Lauren Falohun drove down the left side for a lay-up showing her teammates how to use the Davidson aggressiveness against them as the Gamecock lead surged to 20 points behind many quick-strike layups.
Miranda Tate led all scorers with 13, LaKeisha Sutton had 11 and Demetress Adams poured in 10 and grabbed eight rebounds.
South Carolina then had a date with Ohio down in Cancun Friday night. Both teams must have eaten a little too much turkey as the halftime score showed USC up 18-8. The Gamecocks used a 9-0 run to extend their lead to 41-18 highlighted by Adams' back-to-back layups and a Brionna Dickerson three.
USC then tried to slow the pace of the game and coast to a victory, but the Bobcats tried to make them pay. Ohio went on a 9-0 run and proceeded to pull within 10 points with 2:13 to go, but USC held on to punch its ticket to the championship game with a 43-34 win.
Dickerson led the way for the Gamecocks scoring 15 points in the victory with Adams scoring 14 and retrieving seven rebounds. Jewel May grabbed eight rebounds while the defense did not let any Bobcat players score in double digits.
The Gamecocks seemed to have met their match against UNC-Wilmington in the championship on Saturday. The teams traded leads throughout the contest and the Seahawks made a free throw to knot things up. After neither team could hit a shot, 30 seconds remained on the clock.
Sutton set up the offense, but decided to take matters into her own hands and banked in a shot with the shot clock winding down in what proved to be the game winner with 26 seconds showing on the clock. May was fouled after collecting an errant Seahawk shot and made one of her free throws to set the final score at 57-54.
South Carolina had shot 50 percent in the first half, but eleven turnovers led to a 25-22 deficit at the half. The game was tied 13 times with the largest lead being a 5-point lead in UNC-W's favor. USC twice had a four-point lead, but saw the Seahawks comeback to force a tie.
Sutton made the all-tournament team while Dickerson was named MVP. The Gamecocks will travel to Winston-Salem, N.C., to face Wake Forest at 11 a.m. Wednesday before returning home to host High Point Friday at the Colonial Life Arena at 8 p.m.
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