Carolina's push toward March continues
USC's shots would not fall during the opening minutes of their matchup against Auburn. The Gamecocks found themselves in an 8-0 hole before La'Keisha Sutton put them on the board with just a little more than 15 minutes left to play in the first half.
"I think it was a total team effort," Sutton said. "We realized we were down early and we got off to a slow start, but in our huddles and timeouts, everyone from player one to player 12 was encouraging and bringing energy."
After that basket, the energy came around. USC outscored the Tigers by 24 points from there, winning 65-49.
The Gamecocks took their first lead four minutes before halftime on an Ashley Bruner's layup, and built their advantage on two three-pointers by Valerie Nainima, heading to the locker room with a 27-22 lead.
Unfortunately for Auburn, it didn't take long for the close game to become a thrashing. The Tigers barely had time to peel off their warm-ups before a 12-2 USC run put them at a 15-point disadvantage.
From there, the Gamecocks never looked back, cruising to the victory. Despite its weak start, Carolina finished the afternoon shooting 43.6 percent and sinking seven three-pointers. Three Gamecock players finished in double figures in scoring, led by Sutton with 24.
Nainima ended the game with 15 points, tying a season-high, and Bruner scored 14 off the bench. Markeshia Grant also added spark off the bench for USC, snatching five rebounds to tie for the team lead.
USC's offensive success came in spite of a scoreless game from Ieasia Walker, who had back-to-back 16-point games coming into the contest with Auburn.
"When [Sutton] is playing as well as she's playing from an offensive standpoint ... and then [Nainima] started hitting her shots, we give ourselves a chance when at least two of our perimeter players are really hitting it," coach Dawn Staley said. "With [Bruner] going to work a little bit on the block, we have that kind of balance to get two or three of our players in double figures."
The victory was USC's fourth in five games and its eighth in the conference on the season. With just two contests remaining before the SEC Tournament, the surging Gamecocks have their sights set on a possible NCAA Tournament berth.
"From a coaching staff standpoint, we think about it all the time," Staley said.
"We just can't pass that down to our players. It's pressure in itself, but the more we add to it — we want our players to play as fresh as possible, and the only way to do that is keep them with the mindset of just taking one game at a time."
But the players have taken a light-hearted approach to the pressure they are facing.
"Our whole team loves to dance," Sutton said. "So it'll be nice to dance in March."