Following a tough loss at No. 1-ranked Connecticut Monday, the South Carolina women’s basketball team put up the balanced performance it was looking for.
Five players scored in double digits to lead the Gamecocks to an 82-51 thrashing over Vanderbilt at Colonial Life Arena Thursday night, securing a top-four seed in the SEC Tournament.
“We’ve been building all season long,” coach Dawn Staley said.
“For (Kaela Davis) and all of us, I think we just have to have continuous ball movement, continuous just putting them in spots where they can be aggressive and just having balance,” she said.
Despite only scoring three points against UConn, junior guard Kaela Davis led USC with 15 points in 27 minutes of play. Leading SEC rebounder Alaina Coates tied her with 15 points and grabbed seven boards. Mikiah Herbert Harrigan scored 12 off the bench, while Allisha Gray and A’ja Wilson added 11 and 10, respectively.
Davis credited the Gamecocks' engaged offense to their increasing comfort against zone defenses, which gives them better reads and shot selection.
“We’ve seen a lot of zone all year, so I think we just set more screens," she said. "Part of that comes from me just attacking a little bit more and like I said, finding easier shots. It’s a process, you know. We’re still just figuring out what works best for everyone.”
The Gamecocks jumped out to an early 23-6 lead with a 16-0 run over four minutes in the first quarter. Wilson found her groove in the paint and scored eight, while Davis wasn’t far behind with five. Defensively, the Gamecocks limited the Commodores to two field goals in the quarter.
USC’s nearly three-minute scoring drought in the second allowed Vanderbilt to cut its deficit to 10. But a jumper from Davis not only ended the drought but also catapulted her shooting confidence. She finished the half with 13 points, shooting 50 percent from the field (5-of-10).
Davis wasn’t the only Gamecock who found her shot; eight USC players put points on the board in the first half. The team shot 50 percent from the field and 33 percent from the behind the arc. The balanced scoring led USC to a 46-26 lead at the half.
With Staley resting Davis and Wilson in the fourth quarter, Coates and Herbert Harrigan helped the Gamecocks maintain control of their lead. Vanderbilt's leading rebounder Marqu'es Webb fouled out with 8:32 left, and finished with five points and 12 boards.
Junior guard Christa Reed led the last-place Commodores with 11 points, but Vanderbilt couldn't get anything going offensively, shooting 23 percent from the field and 22 percent from behind the arc.
The Gamecocks (22-3, 12-1 SEC) will head to Columbia, Missouri, next to see if they can continue their conference success against the Missouri Tigers on Sunday. Following that, they'll face Texas A&M on the road and Kentucky at home for a chance to be the regular season SEC Champions for the second year in a row.
“I just think that for how our team has played this season, the pieces that we’ve had to put together and gel, for them to put us back in this position, I think it’s a great accomplishment, Staley said.
“They’ve done a great job to get us where we were last year and putting us in a position to be regular season champions,” she said.