Lady Gamecocks lose to Volunteers for 39th straight time
And, just like last year, they watched the conference-leading orange and blue come back and show why they are undefeated in SEC play.
After an early 12-4 lead vanished, USC stayed within reach of the No. 5 Vols the entire night, only to fall by a final score of 71-56. The Lady Gamecocks are now 1-41 in program history against the Lady Vols and haven't recorded a victory in the series since 1980.
Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer," when it blared over the loudspeakers during a timeout, very aptly described the course of a game. In a first half that had six ties and five lead changes, the Gamecocks managed to stay close until a 3-pointer at the buzzer gave the Lady Volunteers a seven-point lead at halftime, their largest of the contest to that point.
"I thought that was an important turn for us," Tennessee coach Pat Summitt said. "Just to be able to go in and get a little bit of space — not as much as we had hoped, but obviously to go in and have scored those points ... South Carolina played really tough. They really got after us, and our ball security was not always where it needed to be."
But Tennessee hit the ground running in the second half, gradually building up a 15-point lead. The Gamecocks, led by Ieasia Walker, went on a 16-6 run to get back into the game with four minutes remaining, but the Volunteers countered with 10 straight points to seal the win.
Walker had a remarkable individual performance in the loss, recording 19 points in the second half and 24 overall. She also contributed eight rebounds.
"She's been playing great," USC coach Dawn Staley said. "She's been playing great basketball for us on both sides of the basketball. When you're scoring almost half of our points, we want those people taking the shots. I don't think she forced a whole lot of them. I like her effort. I like what she gave us."
The Gamecocks were plagued by a poor shooting percentage throughout the game, knocking down just 32.9 percent on the night. They struggled to overcome the height of Tennessee's squad, as they were out-rebounded 51-31.
"Defensively, we did all we can do," Staley said. "We just have to hang our hats on not being able to knock down shots. We got good shots. We got shots at the basket. We got shots from outside. We just didn't knock them down. Even through their runs — we sustained those runs.
"We knew what our advantage would be. The speed thing... I didn't think we played fast enough at times. I was trying to get our players to push the ball down the floor to see if we could score before all that height came into play."
The Gamecocks will return to action Sunday when they host Alabama. The Crimson Tide got off to a woeful start in conference play, losing its first five SEC contests.
Last year, Carolina's 80-68 defeat of Alabama marked its first conference win.