The second half wasn't the cleanest, but the South Carolina women's basketball team used an early lead to take the NCAA Tournament opener, 63-52, over North Carolina A&T.
The Gamecocks came out firing in the first, coming out to a 10-0 run in the first three minutes before the Aggies could get on the board. The Gamecocks got a little too comfortable with the quick start and their 39-21 lead at the half, as they slowly started to make mistakes.
South Carolina played one of its sloppiest quarters of the season during the third quarter of Friday's game. The Aggies outscored the Gamecocks 14-10 during the quarter and the Gamecocks committed 10 turnovers. They also did not make a three and shot 33 percent from the field. Senior A'ja Wilson gave credit to the Aggies for continuing to persist and said the Gamecocks just didn't play their best.
"They were just continuing to put on the pressure, I think we still kind of got relax in a situation that we shouldn't have, I think we got really comfortable and that's not really good," Wilson said. "They beat us in all three quarters and that's unacceptable for us... we can't beat teams by only winning one quarter, especially at this time of year."
That 18 point lead for the Gamecocks at the half slowly started to diminish as the second half progressed, but the Aggies never quite caught up. Still, North Carolina A&T made things close and took advantage of South Carolina's late struggles.
The Gamecocks committed 19 turnovers on the night, with five coming from Wilson. Despite getting her 22nd double-double of the year and leading the team with 19 points and 16 rebounds, Wilson still felt disappointed in her performance.
Even though North Carolina A&T came out strong in the second half, head coach Dawn Staley knew that her team did not play at their best during the first round of the tournament.
"This isn't characteristic of a South Carolina women's basketball team performance. It was very, very disappointing. I'm not saying that because I don't want to take anything away from North Carolina A&T, but they played extremely well," Staley said. "We have better basketball in us and surely we're going to have to play it if we want to get out of the second round."
While Wilson struggled early, going 1-for-6 from the field, freshman Bianca Jackson found her stride early. She got into rhythm early, scoring a minute into the game and led all scorers at the half with 13 points. She got the Gamecocks on the board first with a three and was 3-for-4 from behind the arc, really helping South Carolina secure that early lead.
With Virginia's 68-62 win over Cal earlier in the day, the Gamecocks and the Cavaliers will face off in the second round at Colonial Life Arena on Sunday. Despite the quick turnaround, Staley thinks it's the perfect amount of time to get her team prepared and ready to play.
"This is it, you don't have to play perfect basketball and we were far from that but we get a chance to play again so that's the most exciting thing about it," Staley said. "We get a chance to prep, get a chance to figure out some schemes to advance out of the second round so I like this format, at least you get one game."