Lady Gamecocks drop second straight to Kentucky
The Gamecocks led 33-30 at the break, but 17 turnovers in the second half and lackluster shooting opened the door for the Wildcats.
"I felt very good about the game; I actually thought we could have had a 10-point lead going into the half," associate head coach Lisa Boyer said on 1320 AM after the game.
South Carolina (9-8, 1-3 SEC) played a strong first half, shooting 13-of-27 from the floor with 14 rebounds and 17 points off turnovers. Ieasia Walker led the team with 10 points, one assist and one steal. The Gamecocks continued this trend into the first eight minutes of the second half, with layups by Ashley Bruner and Valerie Nainima taking the score to 39-30 within the first two minutes of play.
The Lady Gamecocks continued to hold off the Wildcats until Kentucky's Bernisha Pinkett sunk a 3-pointer with 12 minutes to go, giving UK a 46-45 lead. The Wildcats never trailed again, exploding on a 20-3 run to end the game.
"One of their kids hit a three and we didn't score [in] forever," Boyer said. "It was turnovers, not getting shots on the basket."
USC had 28 turnovers in the game.
"I think what is most disturbing about it is that I would say at least half of those were unforced," Boyer said. "Things like turning the ball over when we didn't need to. I mean just not real smart plays, and that's frustrating because I thought that we played a really good first half and actually the first seven, eight minutes of the second half we played pretty well."
Kentucky leads the SEC in turnovers, but Boyer said the Wildcats (12-4, 1-2) actually applied less pressure to the Gamecock offense.
"It wasn't their pressure," Boyer said. "Kentucky is capable of putting way more pressure on teams than they did tonight."
One highlight from Thursday night's game was the performance by Nainima, who continued her fight back from a knee injury and finished the night with 13 points, three rebounds and two assists.
"She was hot there for a while. She's trying to find her way back; she's a senior trying to find her way back," Boyer said. "She knows where she was for us last year. It's just going to take some time."