With Sunday's home matchup with LSU approaching, the South Carolina women's basketball team finds itself in the same position as last season: one win away from a perfect 16-0 against SEC opponents. The Gamecocks are hoping to find more success than they did in last year's regular season finale, when they traveled to Kentucky, and the Wildcats handed the visitors their only loss in league play. That loss forced the Gamecocks into a tie with Tennessee atop the conference standings, making the two teams co-champions.
Things are different this year, however. South Carolina wrapped up the outright SEC regular season title on Feb. 18 with a home win over Georgia. The quality of the opponent in the final game is significantly lower this year as well, as the Lady Tigers are just 3-12 in conference play, despite having beaten Tennessee on Sunday. LSU is the only team in the conference yet to reach double-digit victories on the season, and with only a matchup with the Gamecocks remaining, it would be hard to find someone expecting the Lady Tigers to reach that mark.
LSU will likely have trouble containing South Carolina's bigs, as the Lady Tigers' tallest player is just 6-foot-3, while sophomore forward A'ja Wilson stands 6-foot-5, and junior center Alaina Coates isn't far behind at 6-foot-4. Wilson scorched LSU in Colonial Life Arena last season, setting a then-career high with 26 points in just 25 minutes off the bench. Now a much better player than she was a year ago, LSU must find an answer for Wilson if they want to stay in the ballgame.
This South Carolina team isn't all about Wilson though, or even Wilson and Coates, as many teams have experienced this season. Two-time SEC Player of the Year Tiffany Mitchell is certainly no slouch, as she averages 14.6 points per game this season, and her 83.1 percent rate at the free throw line ranks third in the conference. The Gamecocks have plenty of other capable scorers in senior guards Tina Roy and Khadijah Sessions, sophomore guard Bianca Cuevas, and senior forward Sarah Imovbioh. Any of those top seven players are capable of a big performance on any given night, which has helped the Gamecocks to outscore opponents by an average of 17.3 points per game.
The only thing that can stop South Carolina from reaching conference perfection is itself. The Gamecocks are a complete mismatch for LSU, but they must avoid looking ahead to their first SEC Tournament game on March 4. Barring a major collapse, Dawn Staley and her club will march into March with an unblemished record in the SEC.