When you’re No. 1 you’re always under the gun.
No team understands that sentiment more than the South Carolina women’s basketball team right now.
With a familiar conference opponent in town, the Gamecocks and their undefeated mark were tested by No. 10 Kentucky (14-3, 3-1), but No. 1 South Carolina (16-0, 4-0) came out on top 68-60 in front of more than 17,000 spectators at Colonial Life Arena.
South Carolina has now won 26 straight games at its home arena, the longest active streak in the country.
The victory was South Carolina’s third in its last four contests against the Wildcats, but it wasn’t easy as the Gamecocks had to overcome a halftime deficit.
“To win a game like this against the top-10 team in the country, it’s all about a good profile for March,” South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley said.
In what was a very physical and sloppy game, South Carolina overcame a poor offensive performance by winning with its tough defense, and its persistence on the offensive end down the stretch.
The Gamecocks struggled in the first half as Kentucky put an emphasis on defending the paint, and the Wildcats forced South Carolina into taking more outside shots than they would have wanted.
South Carolina made just 33.8 percent of its shot attempts from the field, well below the team’s season average (50.1 percent).
As a result, the visiting Wildcats took a 38-35 lead into halftime, marking just the third time this year that South Carolina had trailed after 20 minutes of play.
Although the second half wasn’t much better offensively for South Carolina, the Gamecocks made some key halftime adjustments.
Staley decided to switch to a zone defense against a Kentucky team that found little success outside of the paint, and that change proved crucial.
Kentucky made just 23.5 percent of its shots in the second half, and the Wildcats had a tough time getting to the rim.
While Kentucky took 10 free throws in the first half, they had just two trips to the line during the second half. Junior point guard Khadijah Sessions praised her coach for switching to the zone defense in the second half.
“Coach does a great job with playcalling,” Sessions said. “She saw that they were getting good shots, and what they wanted in man, so we moved back into a zone, and I think we played the best zone defense we had all season.”
While the Wildcats had to settle for more low-percentage shots later on in the game, South Carolina became more aggressive as the game went on.
The Gamecocks had a tough time getting good looks near the basket, but South Carolina stayed persistent, and eventually wore a tired Kentucky team down.
20 of South Carolina’s free throw attempts came in the second half, as the Gamecocks attacked Kentucky down low.
Shooting guard Tiffany Mitchell lead South Carolina with 19 points, 11 of which came from the free throw line.
Sessions also scored in double-digits, adding 12 points.
As the Gamecocks found more success within the interior of the Kentucky defense, some outside shots opened as well, and perhaps the turning point of the game happened when Sessions knocked down her third three-pointer of the game to put the Gamecocks up by seven with ten minutes left in the game.
Sessions, who had only made four three-pointers all season prior to Sunday, made three against Kentucky.
“It’s always great to see your shots fall,” Sessions said.
Down the stretch, South Carolina’s depth proved crucial. Staley played 11 different players, while Kentucky coach Matthew Mitchell used just eight players.
“For us, I think depth is probably the reason why we’re so successful,” Staley said.
An already tough second half for Kentucky got even worse as guard Janee Thompson suffered a gruesome injury with a little more than four minutes left in the game.
Thompson got tangled up while going after a loose ball and suffered a dislocated left ankle, according to a spokesperson from Kentucky's athletic department. The spokesperson also said that Thompson was being brought to a hospital.
Two minutes following the injury, Mitchell was ejected from the game after arguing with a referee.