South Carolina finishes regular season with 2 SEC losses
Although the No. 4 South Carolina women’s basketball team locked up the regular-season SEC title Thursday night, the Gamecocks still had one game on their schedule before the conference tournament.
South Carolina (26-3, 14-2 SEC) traveled to Knoxville, Tenn., Sunday to take on the No. 10 Volunteers and left with just its second conference loss of the season, falling 73-61.
Tennessee, which finished behind the Gamecocks at second in the SEC, was in control throughout the game. The Volunteers had built a 38-30 lead at halftime and didn’t allow South Carolina to get back into the contest.
Three Gamecocks finished in double-digits on the day. Junior forward Aleighsa Welch led the way, with 16 points to go with her team-high nine rebounds, and sophomore guard Tiffany Mitchell registered 11 points and eight rebounds. Freshman Alaina Coates joined them in double-figures, turning in 10 points and eight rebounds.
The result of Sunday’s game will have no effect on South Carolina’s seeding in the SEC tournament, as the Gamecocks will still have the top seed as the regular-season champion.
But it will put a measure of pressure on the Gamecocks to perform well in the conference tournament in order to preserve a presumed No. 1 seed in the NCAA bracket.
South Carolina will receive a bye to start the conference tourney and will begin its run Friday when it takes on the winner of a matchup between Vanderbilt and Georgia.