Late Monday night after feeling the pain that comes with losing for the first time all season, South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley promised that South Carolina would have to move on and not dwell on its 25-point loss to No. 2 Connecticut. She wasn’t lying, and neither was the scoreboard at Colonial Life Arena Thursday night.
Eager to take the court after suffering its first setback of the year, No. 1 South Carolina (23-1, 11-0 SEC) reminded folks just how talented it still is and handled conference foe LSU (14-10, 8-4 SEC) with ease, winning 86-62.
“You want to get back out there,” South Carolina junior guard Khadijah Sessions said. “Of course, everybody hates losing, and we really don’t like losing and we had to come back and impose our will.”
Upset about but not fixated on its last performance, the Gamecocks looked and played as if Monday’s game had never even happened.
Utilizing its variety of offensive weapons, South Carolina shot 53 percent from the field, and it was forward A’ja Wilson that stood out the most. The 6’5” freshman dazzled the home crowd and made life tough for LSU due to her combination of athleticism, size and mobility.
She played just 11 minutes in the first half, but Wilson had already registered 14 points before halftime and finished with a career-high 26. Wilson’s ability to catch the ball down in the low post and drive toward the basket made her virtually unguardable.
One of six reserves to play for Staley, Wilson’s effort helped South Carolina outscore LSU 49-4 in bench points.
More times than not, the Lady Tigers had to foul Wilson to slow her down, and even then she was able to finish plays near the bucket, making seven of her 12 shot attempts, including her first three-pointer of the season.
Even though the shot was her first three-point attempt of her collegiate career, Wilson said that she’s taken many in practice, saying she was confident in her ability to shoot the three-ball.
“We work on our threes in practice all the time, we do drills with threes all the time,” Wilson said. “So, I’m comfortable out there.”
Wilson also grabbed eight rebounds and blocked two shots.
By halftime, the Gamecocks led by 28 points, a margin of deficit far too large for the Lady Tigers to overcome.
Wilson wasn't the only Gamecock to enjoy a successful night.
One of the few bright spots in South Carolina’s loss to Connecticut’s was Sessions’ three-point shooting and her ability to connect from far out carried over into Thursday’s game.
Sessions scored 12 points, six of which came from two three-pointers. She also came away with three steals on defense.
As a group, South Carolina connected on seven of its twelve three-pointers, but had a presence close to the rim as well. The Gamecocks put up 42 points in the paint in comparison to LSU’s 26.
Senior power Aleighsa Welch, senior center Elem Ibiam and sophomore center Alaina Coates combined for 18 points and 21 rebounds for South Carolina.
Meanwhile, junior guard and reigning SEC player of the year Tiffany Mitchell scored 11, extending her double-digit point streak to 11 games.
Overall, Staley was fairly happy with the Gamecocks’ offensive performance and ball movement. The Gamecocks had 18 assists on 31 makes from the field, although only five of the assists came in the second half.
On the other end of the court, South Carolina held LSU to 36 percent shooting, and while the Lady Tigers stuck around until about halfway through the first half thanks to offensive rebounds, the Gamecocks went into halftime on a 33-8 run.
LSU junior guard Danielle Ballard led the Lady Tigers with 16 points.
Moving forward, South Carolina will host Vanderbilt (13-11, 4-7 SEC) in what’s most likely its last game as the country’s No. 1 team before next week’s Top 25 poll comes out.
Staley was very pleased, but not surprised about the way her team responded after losing for the first time.
“I expected us to get back to what we’ve been doing all season long,” Staley said. “I didn’t have any doubt that we would come out and play inspired basketball.”