South Carolina will play the winner of Vandy, Georgia on Friday
Coming into the SEC Tournament on Friday, the No. 5 South Carolina women’s basketball team will have to do something it isn’t used to: rebounding after a loss.
The Gamecocks (26-3, 14-2 SEC) lost just three games during the regular season but saw Sunday’s loss to No. 6 Tennessee end the team’s 10-game winning streak, which began after an overtime loss to Texas A&M back in January.
After finishing atop the SEC standings, South Carolina was awarded the No. 1 seed in the SEC Tournament and will not have to play until Friday afternoon.
The possibility of facing Tennessee in the SEC Tournament only presents itself if the two teams make it to the championship game, since the Gamecocks and Volunteers sit on opposite sides of the bracket.
“We have to figure out what to do if we want to win an SEC tournament championship,” head coach Dawn Staley said after South Carolina’s 73-61 loss at Tennessee. “We can use this as a teaching tool for our basketball team. We will learn from this.”
South Carolina has the gift and curse of waiting until Thursday to see who it will play. Its opponent will be decided less than 24 hours before tip-off on Friday.
Vanderbilt will face off against Georgia at noon Thursday in game three, which features two teams that fell to South Carolina earlier this season.
The Gamecocks beat Vanderbilt when the Commodores visited Columbia in a 76-66 victory that was not as close as the score indicates. Then they were able to beat Vanderbilt on its own court in Nashville, Tenn., winning 61-57.
Georgia represented the last hurdle in the Gamecocks’ quest for a regular season SEC championship; South Carolina won 67-56.
If South Carolina wins its game against either Vanderbilt or Georgia, it will turn around and face the victor of game eight. The winner of the Missouri/Mississippi State game will face off against Florida; then, the winner of that game will play Kentucky in game eight.
Whoever emerges would play the Gamecocks in the semifinal game.
Tennessee sits in a similar position to South Carolina, as they, too, need only two victories to reach the championship game, which will be Sunday at 3:30 p.m. on ESPN.
“I told [the team] we may have an opportunity to play Tennessee again in the near future, and we will make some adjustments to be ready,” Staley said. “They won’t be as efficient as they were in the first half.”
Junior center Isabelle Harrison tormented the Gamecocks early on in the contest, accounting for 14 points, six rebounds and a steal in the first half, leading the Lady Volunteers to a 38-30 halftime lead that would propel Tennessee to victory.
“She is definitely a physical player. She was getting a lot of shots early,” junior center Elem Ibiam said. “I wasn’t not prepared, but she is very physical and a good player.”
The SEC league office announced regular season individual awards Tuesday, and South Carolina players littered the list of winners.
Sophomore guard Tiffany Mitchell took home SEC Player of the Year, while Staley grabbed the SEC Coach of the Year award.
Freshman center Alaina Coates was named SEC Freshman of the Year and co-6th Woman of the Year — the best player off the bench — an award she shares with Jennifer O’Neill of Kentucky.
Mitchell and Aleighsa Welch earned spots on the 2014 All-SEC First Team. Coates landed on the 2014 All-SEC Second Team and the 2014 SEC All-Freshman Team.
Ibiam and Mitchell also earned 2014 SEC All-Defensive Team nods.