South Carolina looking forward to SEC, NCAA Tournament
South Carolina senior Courtney Newton has never needed any extra motivation to play Georgia.
The Flowery Branch, Ga., native had 16 points in the upset win over the Lady Bulldogs in Colonial Life Arena last season. With the women’s basketball team tied in the SEC standings with the Lady Bulldogs, tonight’s matchup is especially important not only for Newton but the team as a whole.
“We’re tied in the conference, and we both have the same record, so I think that adds a lot to it because we know what’s on the line,” Newton said. “We are ranked, and we’ve got to do a good job of protecting that on our home court.”
After suffering their worst loss of the season at Arkansas, the No. 25 Gamecocks rebounded in Columbia Sunday with a win over Florida. With a bid for the NCAA tournament at stake, USC hopes a victory over No. 18 Georgia will be a “resume booster.” With the Gamecocks struggling down the stretch of a season in the past, head coach Dawn Staley is just looking for her team to end on a high note.
“We’ve got to just take one game at a time,” Staley said. “The most concerning thing for me is our history in closing out the season. That’s in the forefront. We control our own destiny at this point. We just want to stay focused on the big game in front of us.”
In preparation for the Lady Bulldogs, Staley said she will start freshman Aleighsa Welch over Newton for the second game in a row, despite Welch lacking a statistically strong performance against the Gators.
“You didn’t see it in the stats, but certainly, when you look at how Florida played her, she was another threat out there on the floor,” Staley said. “That’s what you want. You don’t want to play four against five on offense. I was pretty pleased.”
With Newton’s offensive game in a slump, Staley hopes she can effectively channel the offensive performance she had against Georgia in the home contest last season.
“I think she just gives us another offensive threat,” Staley said. “We do have what Courtney did last year (against Georgia) in the back of our minds, so hopefully it will jump-start Courtney’s offense. I think by taking her out of the starting lineup and letting her see the game a little bit, hopefully she’ll be able to knock down some shots for us.”
While the series with Georgia has always been high-energy, the Gamecocks know this year’s game is different.
“We have to know what’s on the line,” Newton said. “Today we wrote it on the board — what the standings were and what each team had left — so it is something that we need to be aware of.”