South Carolina took care of No. 20 Kentucky on Saturday before toppling No. 6 Mississippi State Sunday to claim its third straight SEC Tournament trophy — and they did it without All-SEC center Alaina Coates.
Okay, Coates played four minutes before re-injuring her ankle against the Wildcats, but she wasn't much of a factor in the Gamecocks' pair of impressive wins. With just two active frontcourt players, South Carolina took down two of the nation's best programs in back-to-back days.
And they did it two completely different ways.
Against Kentucky, freshman forward Mikiah Herbert Harrigan made her third career start, and it was a dandy. The 6-foot-2 Floridian notched a career-high 17 points on 7-of-8 shooting to lead the Gamecocks in the semifinal. Herbert Harrigan spent a lot of time on the court with Wilson, and she surpassed her previous career-high by halftime.
Sunday, Dawn Staley switched up the starting lineup, inserting 5-foot-6 guard Bianca Cuevas-Moore in place of the freshman, and the extra speed served the Gamecocks well early. South Carolina jumped out to a 14-5 lead early before the Bulldogs came back, and well, you know the rest.
"Not having Alaina Coates makes you do a lot of different things," Staley said after Sunday's win. "You have to make adjustments."
Neither Coates nor Tiffany Davis, the team's only seniors, played in Sunday's SEC title game, which South Carolina won 59-49. That bodes well for the team's future, especially with Kentucky transfer Alexis Jennings, a 6-foot-3 forward who averaged 10 points and seven rebounds last year, waiting in the wings.
It was the junior class that took center stage, as Cuevas-Moore, Kaela Davis, A'ja Wilson and Allisha Gray scored 44 of the Gamecocks' 59 points. With the double-double machine cheering from the sidelines, the South Carolina rallied in the fourth quarter to beat the No. 6 team in the nation.
And every single player involved in the win will be back in 2017-18.
Obviously, the Gamecocks are still better with Coates healthy, as she leads the team in rebounding and is second to only Wilson in scoring. However, when she moves on to the WNBA after this season, all hope is not lost. Far from it.
With Jennings coming in as an established post presence, Wilson has an experienced option as a new frontcourt mate. Not to mention Herbert Harrigan, who Staley says has improved greatly in the past few weeks due to an increased work ethic.
But what if the Gamecocks don't want to run two bigs?
No problem. The four-guard lineup was deadly in Greenville, with elite scoring options patrolling the wings. Injuries to Wilson and Coates this season allowed Staley to discover several alternative ways to win basketball games, which will only serve the Gamecocks well going forward.