The Daily Gamecock

ONLINE EXCLUSIVE: Gamecocks clinch regular season championship on senior night

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If there was a chance that South Carolina would overlook its next opponent after a big and dramatic win over No. 6 Tennessee, it went away quickly.

Playing with too much on the line to let up, the Gamecocks honored their senior class with a 69-51 win over No. 11 Mississippi State (25-5, 10-5 SEC) Thursday night to guarantee South Carolina (27-1, 15-0 SEC) the No. 1 seed in the SEC tournament and at least a share of the SEC regular-season championship in back-to-back seasons.

The win was the Gamecocks 32nd straight at Colonial Life Arena, tying a program record for most consecutive home wins, and their seventh victory against a ranked opponent this season.

“I thought we came out and played extremely focused,” head coach Dawn Staley said. “I know our players wanted this game for a lot of reasons."

South Carolina was led on offense by junior shooting guard Tiffany Mitchell, the Gamecocks’ most reliable scorer, as she scored 16 points to highlight a 51 percent shooting performance by the Gamecocks.

“We knew it was a big night for our seniors and I just wanted to send them out with a bang,” Mitchell said.

The Bulldogs also had a tough time dealing with South Carolina’s post presence as freshman guard/forward A’ja Wilson and sophomore center Alaina Coates each scored in double digits. Wilson had 13 points in only 13 minutes of play while Coates added 10 points to go along with seven rebounds.

On the other end of the court, Mississippi State struggled to establish any sort of rhythm on offense and was held in check for most of the night, making only 35 percent of its shots while committing 20 turnovers.

Although Mississippi State would stick around for most of the first half, South Carolina led for the entirety of the game and used one of its common late first half scoring runs to lead 39-26 at halftime.

The Gamecocks outscored the Bulldogs 20-10 in the final 05:56 before halftime and never looked back.

South Carolina wouldn’t allow Mississippi State to come within 10 points in the second half and led by as much as 21 points at one point.

Mississippi State was led in scoring by freshman center LaKaris Salter and freshman forward Victoria Vivians, both of whom scored 14 points.

Outside of Salter’s impressive performance, there were few bright spots for the visiting Bulldogs, and Mississippi State head coach Vic Schaefer made a point of giving credit to the program that Staley has been able to build at South Carolina.

Before the game the Gamecocks recognized forward Aleighsa Welch, center Elem Ibiam and guard Olivia Gaines, the team’s three seniors. After being named the WBCA Junior/Community College Player of the Year at Louisburg College, Gaines joined the Gamecock program as a transfer in 2013, while Welch and Ibiam arrived in Columbia as freshmen back in 2011.

At that point in time, Staley had no concrete proof that the Gamecocks would accomplish as much as they are nowadays, but Welch and Ibiam bought in to Staley’s plan regardless and for that reason they’ll always remain special to her.

“For them to believe in our vision, we sat in their homes and we talked about what we’re trying to create and there was none of that here … They believed in what we were saying because we believed in it,” Staley said. “When you have people who believe in a vision, you’re going to be able to accomplish a lot of things.”

Out of the three seniors, Gaines, who was making only her second start of the season, led the trio with nine points and earned praise from Staley for the job she did defending Vivians early on in the game.

“She showed that when she’s given an opportunity, she seizes the moment and she did that for us today on both sides of the ball,” Staley said.

With only one regular season game remaining, the Gamecocks can become the outright regular-season SEC champions with a win on the road against No. 13 Kentucky on Sunday.


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